Close-Ups

Entertainment and Media News

Subscribe
Visit Blog
By: Venable LLP

Blog Authors

Paul S. Bernstein
Michael A. Bloom
Lee S. Brenner
Matthew J. Busch
Christopher S. Crook
Katherine C. Dearing
Sarah E. Diamond
Alan J. Epstein
David. E. Fink
Cary L. Finkelstein
Michael C. Godino
Daniel P. Hoffer
Ilia Katz
Meaghan H. Kent
Rudolph G. Klapper
Melissa Landau Steinman
Hannah L. McMeans
Shane P. Nix
Kathleen K. Sheridan
Malvika A. Sinha
Amy M. Stern
Danae Tinelli
Whitney L. Tolar

Latest from Close-Ups

In an age where the luxurious lives of reality housewives populate millions of televisions throughout the country, the day-to-day activities of wealthy suburban moms are well known to Americans. Stephanie Smith, a wealthy mother of five young children living in the Pacific Palisades near the luxurious Los Angeles coastline, was one such woman. One noteworthy thing set Stephanie Smith apart, however – her multi-million-dollar marijuana empire. Smith was a commercial real estate developer and landlord…
This article is part of a series monitoring developments with regard to California Assembly Bill 5 and its impact on the entertainment industry. See our first post here. The Talking Heads repeat the words, “same as it ever was” in their famous song, “Once in a Lifetime.” Echoing that sentiment, we have learned that all the major studios (and some of the streaming platforms) have agreed to continue to respect the use of loan-out…
The NCAA has traditionally restricted college athletes from accepting any endorsements or compensation related to their participation in college sports. But less than a month after California enacted the Fair Pay to Play Act, which will prohibit the NCAA from preventing college athletes in the state from profiting off their commercial identities starting in 2023, the NCAA’s board voted unanimously to allow students across the country to benefit from the use of their “names, images,…
On July 10, 2019, the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania dismissed with prejudice a defamation and false light lawsuit filed by a dancer at a New Jersey Strip club against the New York Daily News, holding that the plaintiff had failed to plead actual malice with respect to her claims. The case stemmed from a December 2017 Daily News article about the government-ordered closing of the strip club Satin Dolls,…
Individuals working in the entertainment and media industries will feel the pinch in home-states like California and New York. Last month, a federal judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Treasury Department brought by New York, Connecticut, Maryland, and New Jersey that challenged the constitutionality of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act’s limitation on the federal deduction for state and local taxes paid. The TCJA imposed a $10,000 upper limit, known as the SALT Cap, to…
The United States District Court for the Southern District of New York recently dismissed a claim of copyright infringement against Mic Network, Inc. over its use of a partial screenshot of a New York Post article in a subsequent publication. The screenshot featured a photograph of a man in a bar, with the caption “Why I won’t date hot women anymore” on one side and a selection of the article’s text on the other. The…
The New England Patriots recently released star receiver Antonio Brown following allegations of past misconduct, which Brown denies. Setting aside instances in which such clauses are prohibited by unions, Brown’s termination highlights two issues that should be carefully considered when drafting any morals clause – what constitutes a morals violation and timing. How Bad Is Bad? Assuming no prohibitions from relevant guilds, sports teams, studios, advertisers, and other employers may negotiate with talent over what…
This Article is part of a series monitoring developments with regard to California Assembly Bill 5 and its impact on the entertainment industry. California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed into law Assembly Bill 5 (“AB5” or the “Bill”), which redefines the distinction between an employee and an independent contractor. AB5 is primarily targeted at gig economy companies such as Uber and Grubhub, whose workers had been classified as independent contractors up to this point. Proponents…
The Federal Trade Commission held a workshop earlier this week in Washington, D.C., to discuss possible updates to the COPPA Rule, which implements the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”). COPPA was originally enacted in 1998 and regulates the way entities collect data and personal information online from children under the age of 13. The Rule hasn’t been updated since 2013, and the intervening years have produced seismic technological advances and changes in business practices,…
On September 18, 2019, the Florida Third District Court of Appeal held in Hullick v. Gibraltar Private Bank & Trust Co. & Hayworth that a corporation’s board of directors’ discussions during a board meeting did not constitute defamation because the board’s intra-corporate communications were not “published” or communicated to a third party. Since the U.S. Supreme Court in Citizens United fortified the notion that corporations are people, the Florida Court of Appeal allows corporations to…