Attorneys: Movie May Cause Public To 'Think Badly' Of Jennifer Lopez
LOS ANGELES (CBS) — Lawyers for entertainer Jennifer Lopez have asked a judge to throw out a $10 million lawsuit filed by a Southland woman who claims Jennifer Lopez interfered with her film project.
The thrice-married actress and singer claims the movie Claudia Vazquez of Covina wants to make would deal in part with her first marriage, and that revealing the information would damage her career and could cause the public to "think badly" of her.
Vazquez says the project she wants to complete with Lopez's first husband, Ojani Noa, and writer Ed Meyer would be a "comedic parody of Noa's life crafted nearly entirely from material that is already in the public domain."
Lopez has her own lawsuit alleging invasion of privacy by Meyer and Noa.
She has an injunction stopping them from distributing home videos from the brief marriage and is appealing a judge's ruling that her claim for damages should be taken before an arbitrator.
Vazquez maintains the injunction has hindered her ability to produce and market the proposed film, and she says Lopez's attorney has also threatened her.
However, the actress' lawyers say the alleged threats — letters warning Vazquez not to violate the injunction — are "protected conduct," so Vazquez's suit should be tossed.
"I believe that Noa's and Meyer's dissemination of private and intimate details about me, whether true or fabricated, and my alleged relationship with Noa and also their exploiting false and disparaging descriptions and lies about me are highly damaging to me and to my career in the entertainment industry," Lopez says in her legal papers.
The actress also states that making such private facts public is "continuing to cause me great distress and embarrassment."
Lopez says Noa's alleged participation in the project has the potential to hurt her in many ways.
"I believe that Noa will damage my reputation with movie producers and businesses which contract with celebrities for the use of their names, likenesses and spokesperson services for commercial endorsements and may very well cause some members of the movie-going and record-buying public to think badly of me," Lopez states.
The entertainer states the damage may already have been done.
"It may be impossible or very difficult for me to ever know or prove what acting roles and other employment and endorsement opportunities that I did not obtain, or the actual amount of lost compensation, which are a direct result of Noa's statements, scripts, interviews, films, private video, book manuscripts and other things," Lopez says.
Lopez maintains Noa once wanted to write a tell-all book about their marriage, but he denies the allegation.
Lopez married Noa in 1997 and divorced him 11 months later.
A date has not yet been scheduled for her dismissal motion.
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