American Idol winner wants out of oppressive contracts

NightHawkeye

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From the "You're the one who wanted to be a big star" files:

'American Idol' Winner Files Bold Legal Claim to Escape 'Oppressive' Contracts (Exclusive) - The Hollywood Reporter
"I am very grateful for the opportunities provided to me through appearing on American Idol," says Phillips. "The value that the fans and the show have given to my career is not lost on me. However, I have not felt that I have been free to conduct my career in a way that I am comfortable with. I look forward to being able to make my own choices about my career and to being able to make great music and play it for my fans."
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Before Idol viewers voted him the winner that year, Phillips signed a series of contracts governing his management, merchandising, recording and publishing. The deals are quite favorable to 19 Entertainment, a company founded by Simon Fuller that also produces other shows such as So You Think You Can Dance. For example, according to the complaint, when Phillips does endorsements, 19 gets as much as a 40 percent cut.
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It's not unusual for those successful on reality TV shows to renegotiate deals at some point in their career. Phillips says that he "frequently requested" this, but suggests that the relationship between his management company and recording company frustrated any hope of doing so. According to the petition, "Because 19 Recordings, Inc. is also Petitioner's record company, 19, as Petitioner's management company, failed to secure even a single improvement to the terms of the Recording Agreement, in breach of Respondent's fiduciary obligations to Petitioner."
 

ulu

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this is their standard deal- I know from speaking to the agent of a former contestant who decided not to continue competing on the show, because he didn't want to be locked into their agreement for 6 (prime) years of his career.
I don't see how the winner mentioned in the article has any chance of getting out of the deal. They gave him incredible exposure-he gave them the right to control and profit from his career for sometime.
In the entertainment industry, there is no "something for nothing"
 
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Maren

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this is their standard deal- I know from speaking to the agent of a former contestant who decided not to continue competing on the show, because he didn't want to be locked into their agreement for 6 (prime) years of his career.
I don't see how the winner mentioned in the article has any chance of getting out of the deal. They gave him incredible exposure-he gave them the right to control and profit from his career for sometime.
In the entertainment industry, there is no "something for nothing"

From what I understand, the lawsuit is largely based around his "agent" -- that the agent works for/represents 19 (the parent company) as well as Phillips -- as such the agent does what 19 tells the agent to do rather than providing Phillips any type of real representation. I don't know enough about entertainment law (in particular, California's Talent Agencies Act) but I would suspect Phillips has a decent chance, because of his agents clear conflict of interest.

The examples, such as the JetBlue example, of the agent putting 19's wants ahead of Phillip's interests would seem to be grounds to invalidate the management contract, at a minimum. I can see the other contracts being invalidated since, if Phillips is found to have not been properly represented by his agent, they would have essentially been negotiated in bad faith by 19.
 
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