Summary: A settlement agreement has been made between Zooey Deschanel and Seven Summits.
New Girl star Zooey Deschanel will no longer have to stand trial in July. The quirky actress was in a legal dispute with her ex-talent managers, and the company had sued her in December 2015, claiming she owed them on multiple commissions.
The Hollywood Reporter said that this month, Deschanel and Seven Summits Pictures & Management reached an agreement, ending their legal battle. Seven Summits filed a motion to dismiss the case last Friday.
Seven Summits represented Deschanel for nearly twenty years, and they had an agreement that she would pay them 10% commission on all of her entertainment-related work. After the actress parted ways in 2013, Seven Summits said the actress continued to pay her commissions from work procured while a client, but they sued when she allegedly stopped these payments on what was owed, which includes a cut of the sale of her website Hello Giggles and other commissions from her modeling, TV, and film work.
Deschanel started Hello Giggles, a news and features website aimed at millennial women, and it sold for tens of millions of dollars. Seven Summits said that they were owed a commission, but Deschanel refused to pay because she said the website was not entertainment-related.
Seven Summits filed their lawsuit in 2015 and they were scheduled for trial in July, but the settlement puts an end to that next step.
In December 2016, Deschanel filed a counter lawsuit, saying that the management company did not have an enforceable agreement with her and that they were in breach of their fiduciary duty. In that complaint, she said that they manipulated her into switching talent agencies because of their own personal disputes and that they used her fame to get new clients.
Deschanel also said that the Seven Summits partner Sarah Jackson inappropriately walked in on her while she was in a dressing room in order to show off to strangers.
In February, Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Michael Raphael ruled in favor of Seven Summits and said he was not convinced of the actress’ argument that they were in breach of fiduciary duty.
Terms of the settlement are unclear, but Deschanel’s attorney, Paul Sorrell, told The Hollywood Reporter that the agreement was amicable.
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