Disney, Actors Ordered to Pay $15-Million Award - Los Angeles Times
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Entertainment & Arts

Disney, Actors Ordered to Pay $15-Million Award

By Richard Verrier
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A jury ordered Walt Disney Co., Tim Allen and others tied to ABC’s hit show “Home Improvement” to pay nearly $15 million to a talent agency.

A Los Angeles Superior Court jury said Disney owed $3.25 million for underpaying commissions when the sitcom aired on ABC from 1991 to 1999. The rest of the award must be paid by several other “profit participants” in the show, including Allen and actress Patricia Richardson.

The verdict sprang from a 1997 lawsuit by the Agency for the Performing Arts, which sued on behalf of one of the show’s creators, Matt Williams, claiming he was cheated out of profits. Disney is considering an appeal of the verdict.

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“We are disappointed by the verdict,” said Disney spokeswoman Michelle Bergman. “We believed that we satisfied our obligation” to the talent agency.

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Entertainment & Arts
Richard Verrier

Richard Verrier is investigations editor for Arts and Entertainment at the Los Angeles Times. He has been with The Times since 2001 and has run our Company Town since 2016. After stints at the St. Petersburg Times and the Orlando Sentinel in Florida, Verrier joined the paper as a reporter, and for many years covered all aspects of the entertainment industry before turning to editing. He oversees the Company Town coverage while working to guide and edit investigative and enterprise reporting across the entertainment team, collaborating with writers and editors from all departments. He is a native of Montreal and a graduate from the University of Toronto and Columbia University’s Graduate School of Journalism.

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