Paris Hilton should return up to $1 million she was paid for the 2006 box-office bomb “Pledge This!” because she didn’t plug the film enough, an attorney for the movie’s investors told a federal judge Thursday.
The 29-year-old hotel heiress, actress and self-promoting businesswoman refused nine requests for print and broadcast interviews she should have given under her contract, said investor attorney Bryan West.
“We paid her $1 million, and we’re entitled to get at least a portion of that back,” West told U.S. District Judge Federico Moreno. “Part of what actors do is promote their films.”
But Hilton’s attorney, Michael Weinsten, said she took part in several high-profile publicity events — including an appearance at the Cannes Film Festival — and that the contract didn’t require her to do interviews when she was busy on other projects.
Weinsten added that Hilton also had the right to approve or reject any proposals or offers.
“Paris Hilton is a brand. That is her value, and how she makes money,” he said. “She did substantial publicity.”
Hilton, who testified last summer at a trial over the dispute, did not attend Thursday’s hearing. She said previously that although dissatisfied with the finished “Pledge This!” cut, she wanted the college sorority romp to succeed and worked hard to make that happen. Yet the film only made $2.9 million.
Moreno previously rejected the investors’ effort to sue Hilton for $8.3 million in damages, which included the $1 million she was paid for her acting and as executive producer. But he left open the possibility that she might have to repay some or all of that fee as restitution if she did not fulfill her publicity obligations.
Moreno did not indicate when he would rule. The case centers on determining the value of the appearances Hilton did against the cost of those she rejected, which ranged from a proposed appearance on NBC’s “Tonight Show” to phone chats with several British publications.
“The question is, what is the value of what she did do? Because she did do something,” Moreno said. “How do I quantify it?”
Hilton was sued by attorney Michael Goldberg, a court-appointed receiver for a now-defunct entertainment company that was the major investor in “Pledge This!” The company, Worldwide Entertainment Group, was shut down as a suspected $300-million Ponzi scheme by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and Goldberg is attempting to recoup losses for some 3,300 investors in the company.
Both sides acknowledge Hilton’s ability to move a product. Goldberg said Thursday that sales of the “Pledge This!” DVD spiked last summer amid publicity surrounding the trial, although he did not provide exact sales numbers.
Harris Dickinson Toys With Ambiguity In “Babygirl” While Keeping a Secret From Nicole Kidman
Harris Dickinson was nervous to approach Nicole Kidman.
This would not necessarily be notable under normal circumstances, but the English actor had already been cast to star opposite her in the erotic drama "Babygirl," as the intern who initiates an affair with Kidman's buttoned-up CEO. They'd had a zoom with the writer-director Halina Reijn, who was excited by their playful banter and sure that Dickinson would hold his own. And yet when he found himself at the same event as Kidman, shyness took over. He admitted as much to Margaret Qualley, who took things into her own hands and introduced them.
"She helped me break the ice a bit," Dickinson said in a recent interview.
On set would be an entirely different story. Dickinson might not be nearly as "puckishly audacious" as his character Samuel but in the making of "Babygirl," he, Kidman and Reijn had no choice but to dive fearlessly into this exploration of sexual power dynamics, going to intimate, awkward, exhilarating and meme-able places. It's made the film, in theaters Christmas Day, one of the year's must-sees.
"There was an unspoken thing that we adhered to," Dickinson said. "We weren't getting to know each other's personal lives. When we were working and we were the characters, we didn't veer away from the material. I never tried to attach all of the history of Nicole Kidman. Otherwise it probably would have been a bit of a mess."
His is a performance that reconfirms what many in the film world have suspected since his debut seven years ago as a Brooklyn tough questioning his sexuality in Eliza Hittman's "Beach Rats": Dickinson is one of the most exciting young talents around.
Dickinson, 28, grew up in Leytonstone, in East London — the same neck of the woods as... Read More