Judge Rules for Geraldo
Geraldo Rivera has won a lawsuit brought on by his former agent.
A Manhattan judge has tossed a suit against Rivera brought by the TV newsman’s former talent agency William Morris Endeavor Entertainment.
WMEE had sued Rivera last September, saying the television personality’s contract, which the firm negotiated, called for the talent agency to collect 10% of his gross salary for his work at Fox News.
Rivera stopped paying them in 2010, saying his deal was only with his agent, Jim Griffin, who left the company the previous year.
The NY Daily News says that a Manhattan Supreme Court Justice Charles Ramos tossed the suit in a decision posted Thursday saying WMEE only had a verbal agreement with Rivera and it cannot be enforced.
The judge said that even if he were to apply the original written contract that Rivera had with WMEE from 1994 to 1997, that contract is no longer valid because it requires that only Griffin could handle Rivera’s affairs.
Rivera said last September that he was loyal to Griffin — his agent since 1985 — because Griffin had stuck with him “through thick and thin.”
Thursday, Rivera was elated by Ramos’ decision because, he said, nobody who is now at William Morris was involved in negotiating his current contract with Fox.
“This is a body blow to how Hollywood does business,” Rivera said. “It deals a blow to evil agents who wanted money for work they never did.”