[KA] Lee Da-hae hit with lawsuit for breach of contract

Lee Da-hae hit with lawsuit for breach of contract



More trouble for actress Lee Da-hae, who is being hit with a lawsuit for dropping out of Coffee, the period spy film that cast Kim So-yeon to replace her.
According to the Seoul Central District Court on May 13, film
production company Ocean Film filed suit for damages against the star
and her management, DBM Entertainment. Ocean Film contends, “Ms. Lee
agreed to appear in our movie Coffee and received 100 million
won in salary. However, she decided to take a broadcast drama instead
and informed us of her intent to drop the movie.” Now they are demanding
payment for breach of contract, and are suing for 360 million won
(approx $330,000 USD), citing compensation for damages.
DBM’s legal representative stated in a press release that they would
fight back through whatever legal means necessary. Addressed in the
statement were: the signing of Lee’s official contract, Lee’s salary for
the movie, and the cause for her departure.
According to Lee’s management, they admitted to telling Ocean Film
verbally that she wanted to do the film, but that no official contract
had been completed. They did say, “We did draw up a simple informal
contract when Ocean Film came to us asking for help in attracting
investments. But we didn’t sign a contract booking Lee, so we have not
received even one penny from Ocean Film. Therefore there are no grounds
for them to demand damages twice as much as her pay.”
DBM also cited the failure of the production company to secure its
proposed 10 billion won funding (which would have been necessary for Coffee
to be the blockbuster it had been touting itself as) for leaving the
project. That reason may be valid and true, but it doesn’t do much for
Lee’s image as a star who leaves projects when they threaten to diminish
her stature — sorry to say, but her public image has taken a lot of
hits in recent years, and this doesn’t help things any. Especially given
the existence of a contract promising her appearance — no matter how
informal it may be.
Speaking of that contract, it sounds like Ocean Film may be trying to wring some money out of DBM, but the fact that there is one out there may complicate matters for the management team. Coffee
was initially scheduled to begin filming in December 2010, but
underwent various delays. DBM explained that Lee’s schedule for her
upcoming drama Ripley was starting to conflict, so she dropped the film.
Lee’s new drama Ripley, on the other hand, will be
premiering on MBC on May 30. I guess it was too much to hope for that
she’d start a project without controversy, for once. Then again, it may
help stir interest in the drama, in which Lee actually plays a
controversial type of character, one based on an infamous liar
and fraudster who set off a wave of scandals back in ’07. I suspect the
drama character will be a much toned-down version of that type, though
it would be great if they went whole hog and embraced her as an
anti-heroine. (I don’t have much hope of that, though.)

Via Star News, Seoul.co.kr
Credits:dramabeans.com