Hollywood supreme
High court rulings favor AOL, Spielberg, pubs
Furthermore, in a case tracked by the music biz, the robes said rocker Nicholas Kassbaum had the right to mention that he used to be with the hit band Steppenwolf. Other members of the now-defunct band alleged that Kassbaum -- a.k.a. Nick St. Nicholas -- had signed away his right to promote his two-year duty as bassist.
AOL coasts clear
AOL Time Warner got some good news as well on Monday, with the high court setting aside a $257 million judgment secured by investors in the conglom's Six Flags Over Georgia amusement park. The investors alleged that AOL Time Warner affiliates mismanaged the park.
In the case involving Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment, stitcher Barbara Brown had convinced a lower court that Spielberg's Amblin Entertainment had indeed used her designs improperly. Because the feature was a financial failure, however, the lower court said Amblin only owed Brown $2.35.
The Supreme Court ended the matter by refusing to hear Brown's appeal of the minuscule judgment.
Similarly, the robes refused to hear C. DeLores Tucker's libel case against Time and Newsweek. Both mags reported that Tucker's sex life with her husband was damaged after rapper Tupac Shakur mentioned her by named on the 1996 album "All Eyez on Me."
Anti-rap activist
Tucker, a longtime anti-rap activist, is the former head of the National Political Congress of Black Women and a former secretary of state for Pennsylvania.
Tucker had sued Shakur's estate for "loss of consortium," which by definition can mean problems in the bedroom. Tucker, however, insisted sex had nothing to do with her claim against the slain rapper's estate and brought libel actions.
A federal court of appeals ruled that since Tucker was a public figure, she had to prove that the magazines acted with malice. Ultimately, the court said there was no such evidence.
In the second libel case, the high court refused to hear the Church of Scientology's action against Time over a 1991 cover story alleging that the church was greedy and cultish. The church was appealing a lower court ruling that there was no malice involved, hence Time was in the clear.
