* Another high-profile discrimination case, but this time in the world of haute cuisine. Daniel Boulud’s defense? He’s an immigrant himself — we bet the whole “Freedom Fries” anti-French sentiment really hurt. [New York Times]
* A gentleman should not be required to excuse himself for European civility. [AP via Lowering the Bar]
* I have never smoked pot. As long as people dating me or coming to my stand-up gigs are high, the banter will undoubtedly seem witty and the jokes uproarious, and I’d rather be lucid enough to savor such fleeting moments. [TalkLeft]
* My mom once gave me cash to use on an SAT-prep course. I secretly used it on a Gucci dress. But I still got into my first choice college
* Families blame MySpace for enabling teenage irrationality, sexual perversion and poor parenting. They long for the days they could just plunk their kids in front of the TV without consequence. [Associated Press]
* So you think MTV doesn’t respect its audience? Well, it has just acquired RateMyProfessors, so I guess it’s assuming someone in that demographic actually cares about school and their future and stuff. [TaxProf Blog]
Television
- Abortion, Crime, Drugs, Education / Schools, Food, Kids, Mergers and Acquisitions, Non-Sequiturs, Sexual Harassment, Television
Non-Sequiturs: 01.18.07
By Stella Q- Celebrities, Copyright, Crime, Cyberlaw, Education / Schools, Environment / Environmental Law, Intellectual Property, Movies, Music, Non-Sequiturs, Romance and Dating, Television, Violence
Non-Sequiturs: 01.17.07
By Stella Q* If you support intelligent design, then these Inconvenient Truth-opposing parents want you in their PTA. [Seattle Times]
* If he had thrown down the gauntlet beforehand, might that be a mitigating factor? We can see the headlines now: If the glove doesn’t fit… [TaxProf Blog]
* Diana, you know the audience will be cheering for Effie, but Florence Ballard died 30 years ago — and you’re going to be an American Idol “mentor”! Yeah, life has definitely been unfair in your favor. [AP via Yahoo! News]
* Some real-life law and order from a man known to die-hard L&O fans like myself as Chris Noth’s partner in the second season. (And, incidentally, it appears that the younger Sorvino daughter likes them as young as her brother-in-law.) [People]
* Napster rip-off Kazaa introduces its new YouTube rip-off called Joost. Why do I care? Because I wrote my law school thesis on Kazaa. And because Joost (as in “juiced”) is as stupid a name as “Kazaa.” [Los
Angeles Times]
It’s not as awful as being recorded on video using racial epithets. But this must still be pretty embarrassing for comedian Jerry Seinfeld:
Supreme Court Justice Rolando T. Acosta has ruled that Seinfeld must pay a real-estate broker a commission of at least $98,750 for the $3.95 million townhouse he and his wife purchased in 2005.
Seinfeld had testified that the broker, Tamara Cohen, did not deserve the payment, as she had not been available when he and his wife, Jessica, wanted to see the West 82nd Street home. The Seinfelds also testified that they did not know that the reason Cohen did not return their calls was that she was an observant Jew and observed the Sabbath.
Acosta held that, notwithstanding Cohen’s failure to immediately return the Seinfelds’ calls, “[T]he evidence clearly indicates that she served as the Seinfelds’ real estate broker.”
It’s too bad “Seinfeld” isn’t still on the air. We could easily see this scenario — a real estate broker failing to return calls promptly because she’s a Sabbath observer — turning into a plot line.
(Actually, we wouldn’t be surprised to see it turn up in the next season of “Curb Your Enthusiasm.” This is something we could totally see Larry David getting irate over. ‘Cause he gets irate over everything.)
Comedian Seinfeld Ordered to Pay Real Estate Broker Fee [New York Law Journal via Law.com]
* The Snark’s spin on Plus ça change…. [New York Lawyer]
(Yes, New York Lawyer is a registration-only site, but The Snark may be worth it; if you are not as thirsty for funny as I am, then check out the The Daily Report, where The Snark’s weekly column is freely available a week after it is published.)
* As you regular readers no doubt know, we here at ATL enjoy our celeb gossip. But this time, it’s your fault if I say “big lips” and you think Angelina. [AP via Racialicious]
* This deserves more than a N-S mention, but the disparity between executive compensation and minimum wage, with the periodic efforts to pre-empt an uprising of the working man “narrow” the gap, depresses me too much to go on. [Workplace Prof Blog]
* When I think criminal defense, I think The Practice. And yummy Dylan McDermott. And then I stop thinking altogether. But surely, this PD’s job is better than “doing hair.” [Audacity]
* Is CBS attempting to redress any previous restraints on free speech? You know more than a few submissions will feature wardrobe malfunctions. [CBS]
* Because the long-standing Dewey Cheatem & Howe joke is not fair to Dewey Ballantine, which is already feeling like the pathetic, STD-ridden dumpee that it is. [Concurring Opinions]
* The next logical step is for the publishers of Gray’s Anatomy to sue ABC — and for the next edition of said text to feature the United Colors of Benetton cast on its cover. [FN1] [The Agitator]
[FN1] It has come to my attention that a lot of lawyers and those who love them don’t have time for even must-see TV. So please note that the ubiquitous Postal Service single is featured on the Grey’s
Anatomy soundtrack. See how that works?
- Blackberry-Crackberry, Donald Stout, Fabulosity, Fred Fielding, Intellectual Property, Money, Patents, Real Estate, Television, Wiley Rein
Lawyerly Lairs: Check Out “The Stouthouse”
By David LatFred Fielding, the incoming White House counsel, did pretty well for himself when the Blackberry litigation was settled. His firm, Wiley Rein & Fielding, represented NTP, the patent holding company that won a $612.5 million settlement from Research in Motion, maker of the Blackberry. Wiley Rein took the case on a contingency-fee basis. Ka-ching!
But some people did even better than Fielding — like Donald Stout (at right), patent lawyer to the late inventor, Thomas Campana. Here’s an explanation of how the Blackberry spoils were divvied up:
Biggest single winner was Joletta Campana, widowed second wife and former secretary of patent-holder Thomas Campana Jr., who received one-third [of the $612.5 million,] or about $200 million. Wiley, Rein & Fielding also received $200 million, a huge sum given that in 2004 the Washington, D.C. firm’s two hundred and fifty lawyers generated about $140 million in total revenue. The final $200 million was shared by Donald Stout and some colleagues at his Alexandria-based law firm.
So how did Donald Stout spend his windfall? On real estate, of course. From Washingtonian magazine, via Wonkette, here’s an account of “The Stouthouse”:
Lawyer Donald Stout put up $6.8 million for a 15,000 square-foot Georgian on more than four acres near the Madeira School in Great Falls, VA — this after his Arlington patent-holding firm won a settlement against the makers of BlackBerry and earned him $177 million. HGTV’s Dream Builders featured the six-bedroom, ten-bath house in a segment taped before the sale.
Here are some photographs (Zillow on the left, Google Maps on the right):
WOW. This place makes the Feldsuk house look like a law school dorm. At a Tier 4 school.
For those of you who share our obsession with high-end real estate, there’s more discussion of The Stouthouse, plus links, after the jump.
Continue reading “Lawyerly Lairs: Check Out “The Stouthouse””
- Celebrities, Deaths, Drinking, Jeanine Pirro, Legal Ethics, Music, Non-Sequiturs, Politics, Reality TV, Sex, Television
Non-Sequiturs: 01.10.07
By Stella Q* What the world really needs more than another lawyer is another talk-show host. Also, is it just me, or do you think Eva Longoria should play Jeanine Pirro in a Lifetime movie once she’s all washed up? [New York Post]
* Ethics CLE credit is notoriously hard to come by, but the lucky attorneys of Virginia get a go at four whole hours of it, by sitting through what will no doubt amount to a slightly more polished version of your law school’s annual talent show. [American Constitution Society For Law and Policy Blog]
* Film Producer Carlo Ponti, who started out as a lawyer, has died. Perhaps in your future also lie multiple affairs with hot Italian actresses and a long, albeit briefly bigamous, marriage to none other than the luscious Sophia Loren. [AP via New York Times]
* No word on any pending legislation regarding public urination though. [Sun Herald]
* Despite the well-timed Donald/Rosie debacle, there doesn’t seem to be that much interest in Season 6 of The Apprentice, even though this season features 6 attorneys. And Ivanka. Go figure. [Althouse]
- Adoption, Angelina Jolie, Deaths, Federal Judges, Food, Intellectual Property, Job Searches, Kids, Money, Non-Sequiturs, Pets, Supreme Court Clerks, Television, Trademarks, Violence
Non-Sequiturs: 01.09.07
By Stella Q* It’s that time of the year, when you yet again resolve to no longer be an attorney. You have one more chance to make this same futile resolution when Chinese New Year rolls around. [The Complete Lawyer]
* Any food substance that sustains armies and people still living in Y2K bunkers deserves nothing less than a full-on defense of its rights. You go, Hormel. [Likelihood of Confusion]
* Healthy parenting or affirmative action? I We wonder if little Shiloh will turn out like that other token biological celebrity offspring, Satchel Ronan Seamus (or just another needy, rich, hot girl, whose mommy never loved her). [Hot Gossip at MSN Entertainment]
* Darwinism resurfaces, and thank God, because I really hate tiny dogs. [St. Petersburg Times]
* Bonus season may be behind us, but we still have money on our minds. [May It Please the Court]
* I am open to all genres of TV shows, as you may know. But this? Almost makes me long for the days of Ally McBeal. [QuizLaw]
In our report earlier today about Supreme Courtships, a forthcoming television show about “the personal and professional lives of six Supreme Court clerks and their supervisors,” we looked back on two failed TV shows about the Supreme Court: “First Monday” and “The Court.”
We wrote:
Judicial groupies were thrilled to see two shows about the Court on national television (despite the many inaccuracies and ridiculous plot lines). But their joy was fleeting.
Now, this correction. Not everyone who follows the Supreme Court was so pleased by the attention from Hollywood.
From a January 2002 article by Tony Mauro:
Complete with James Garner as a chief justice who smokes (like the real one), Joe Mantegna as an Italian-American associate justice who attends Mass (like the real one), and a Court with two women and one black justice (like the real one), ["First Monday"], if it succeeds, will probably impart more information about the nation’s highest court to the general public than a decade’s worth of routine activity by the real Supreme Court.
And that is what worries people like Carter Phillips of Sidley Austin Brown & Wood, a veteran Supreme Court advocate who is among a small number of Washington lawyers who have seen rough cut tapes of the first two episodes.
“Unbelievably smarmy,” says Phillips, who is not usually given to outbursts of hyperbole. “Vomitous.”
Look, it could have been worse. At least Phillips didn’t use profanity, as he has done before (in open court). He could have called the “First Monday” producers “motherf*****s” and told them to “eat s***.” Instead, he temperately dismissed their show as “vomitous.”
Why was Phillips so upset? Per Mauro:
Phillips confesses that he is a stickler for accuracy, and as such could not abide the slew of details that come out wrong in the show.
For one, the first episode was based erroneously on the premise that it takes five justices to grant review in a case, not four.
Relax, Carter! Look at the glass as half-full. You should have been pleased that the word “certiorari” was even uttered on national television, on a channel other than C-SPAN.
Another issue with “First Monday”:
Garner’s chief justice, an inveterate Oklahoma football fan, precedes the first Court session with a football-huddle-style handshake among the nine robed justices and the rallying cry “Let’s go out there and make history!”
Yes, this sounds ridiculous. But is it really so impossible to imagine? If Harriet Miers, with her cheerleader-ish tendencies, had been confirmed to the Court, group hugs might have become de rigeur at One First Street.
Will New Supreme Court TV Show Make It Past Its ‘First Monday’? [Law.com]
C-SPAN’s Potty-Mouth Broadcast [Washington Wire]
Carter G. Phillips bio [Sidley Austin]
Earlier: “Supreme Courtships”: A Show About SCOTUS Clerks, Take Three
Do any of you remember The Court or First Monday? If not, we don’t blame you.
These shows were two very short-lived television dramas about the U.S. Supreme Court. They focused on the weighty issues presented to the Court, as well as the interpersonal relationships between the justices and the law clerks.
Judicial groupies were thrilled to see two shows about the Court on national television (despite the many inaccuracies and ridiculous plot lines). But their joy was fleeting.
“The Court” and “First Monday” crashed and burned, and both were canceled before finishing a single season. While they were popular with Supreme Court clerks that Term, who would get together for weekly viewings in each other’s apartments, a viewership of 36 isn’t enough to sustain a TV show.
Undeterred by the failure of these ventures, Hollywood is placing another bet on One First Street. From the Hollywood Reporter:
A headstrong female defense attorney, Supreme Court clerks and hospital nurses are at the center of three one-hour pilots that have been given the green light by Fox….
Supreme Courtships, from 20th Century Fox TV and Adelstein Prods., is a comedic drama about the personal and professional lives of six Supreme Court clerks and their supervisors.
Gary Tieche (ABC’s “MDs”) wrote the script and is executive producing with Marty Adelstein and Michael Thorn.
We hope that “Supreme Courtships” takes off; we really do. We adore Supreme Court clerks and everything about them. We worship the ground they walk upon, and we follow their triumphs as closely as Page Six follows Lindsay Lohan’s misadventures.
But we don’t think we are the typical television viewer. And we have serious doubts as to whether this show will connect with an audience.
A book project focused on the courts and on law clerks, a la the forthcoming Chambermaid by Saira Rao, is something that can succeed. Readers of books are more high-minded and culturally sophisticated than viewers of television; TV is called “the boob tube” for a reason. Also, it’s much easier to employ a niche marketing strategy when selling books.
But television is much more mass-market than book publishing. The demographics are different, and the appeal needs to be broad. And we fear that the fabulosity of Supreme Court law clerks will be lost upon the typical TV viewer. To the contrary, the typical TV viewer may be more like the party guest in this anecdote (a true story):
A law clerk to Justice Kennedy attends a party in New York. He starts chatting with another guest, and the inevitable “So what do you do?” question surfaces. The law clerk identifies himself as a clerk to Justice Kennedy.
Almost immediately, the other party guest
tries to escapeexcuses himself, saying he needs to “refill his drink.” As he leaves, he tells the AMK clerk: “Good luck with your clerical work!”
Fox Gives a Go to Three Dramas [Variety via How Appealing]
Fox rules for trio of hour pilots [Hollywood Reporter via How Appealing]
The Court [IMDb]
First Monday [IMDb]
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