Jennifer Lopez sued over World of Dance
LOS ANGELES (CM): Jennifer Lopez is being sued by a man who alleges she stole the idea for ‘World of Dance’ from an idea he had copyrighted almost 10 years ago. Jennifer Lopez is being sued by a man who alleges she stole the idea for ‘World of Dance’.
Alvin Gray-El has filed a lawsuit against Jennifer, NBC, and choreographer Debbie Allen, as he claims the American reality competition - which began in 2017 and is executive produced by Jennifer, who is also on the judging panel - is based off of an idea he came up with 10 years ago.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, Gray-El alleges he came up with an idea for a show called ‘Let’s Start the Dance’ back in 2009, and claims he faxed a letter to Debbie and her production company in an effort to see if she would be interested in producing the show. He then claims he never heard back from the choreographer, but went ahead and had the show registered with the US Copyright Office in 2010.
Gray-El discovered ‘World of Dance’ was in the works at NBC in 2017 shortly before it aired, and alleges he tried to get in contact to notify them of the copyright infringement, but says he never heard back.
Debbie has no involvement in the NBC show, but Gray-El believes she must have given the information to Jennifer, who then created ‘World of Dance’. He is seeking $5 million in actual damages and $1.5 million in punitive damages.
Michelle seeing change in Hollywood
LOS ANGELES (CM): Michelle Williams is seeing real change in Hollywood in the wake of the Time’s Up and #MeToo movements.
The 38-year-old actress has said she’s begun to feel like ‘’one of the boys’’ in her career in recent months thanks to the movements which aim to bring gender equality to the workplace as well as an end to sexual harassment, as she says she no longer receives unwanted advances from Hollywood executives.
She said: ‘’Rather than being grasped too tightly or hugged for too long at the morning meeting my hand was shaken and I was looked squarely in the eye as I was welcome to my Monday morning. ‘’I realised this is actually what it feels like to be on the inside, to be one of the boys.’’ And Michelle - who was paid just $1,000 in comparison to her co-star Mark Wahlberg’s $1.5 million for reshoots of ‘All the Money in the World’ - says she’s even begun receiving the same pay as her male colleagues. he added: ‘’And on the job I completed two weeks ago - let me tell you something - I was paid equally as my male co-stars.’’ The ‘Venom’ star also recalled what happened when her pay gap scandal was uncovered, as she said ‘’no one cared’’ about the disparity.
