Donny & Marie: A little bit country, a little bit rock & roll, 100% SUED by Vegas producer

[Amerigo Vespucci]

Oct 07, 2010
Vegas producer sues Donny and Marie Osmond

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/entertainment/post/2010/10/vegas-producer-sues-donny-and-marie-osmond/1



Donny and Marie Osmond are being taken to task - and maybe to court - by a Las Vegas show producer who paints a not-so-nice picture of the wholesome twosome.

Chip Lightman, producer of the Donny & Marie show at the Flamingo, says in a complaint filed Friday that the Osmonds have been "underhanded, devious, fraudulent and greedy."

At issue: The Osmonds engineered "a plot to defraud the William Morris Agency" of its cut for negotiating a recent contract. Lightman is seeking unspecified damages for breach of contract, unjust enrichment, fraud and defamation, reports The Hollywood Reporter.

One of the more interesting tidbits from the documents: The Osmonds are each paid a base salary of $1.6 million and 40 percent of the gross box office from the show. And according to the complaint that wasn't enough for Donny. "The clear goal of actions has been to line his own pockets with ill-gotten gains to fund his lavish lifestyle of exotic cars, luxury hotel suites and private jets -- all off the backs and hard work of those who worked tirelessly to support his career."

The Osmonds' L.A. attorney, Howard King, tells THR that he and his clients haven't seen the complaint but are "surprised and disappointed that Mr. Lightman took such precipitous action, especially in light of the substantial sums he has been paid, despite the facts that he neither created, financed or owns the show, nor does he engage the talented and dedicated people who produce and perform the show each night."

[Ken Burch]

1. Does this mean...

...they have cellars full of caviar?

[Morkispaw]

2. I don't think so

I know that Donny Osmond sent his children to a public school. It seems to me that if he wanted to live a lavish lifestyle he certainly could do that, but when I lived in Provo I saw him doing his own shopping at Albertson's and his kids went to the same crummy public schools my kids went to. As I understand it he is a regular attendee of the church in his neighborhood and participates in regular community projects. (The LDS are BIG on the community projects.) As a matter of fact he was a regular attendee at the elementary school's Halloween Parade and sat on a metal folding chair in the middle of the cafeteria just like everybody else. I saw him every year that his kids were there.

I find it very difficult to believe that a man who is so invested in living a "normal" life that he would willingly send his kids to public schools in spite of having more than enough money to hire private teachers is going to rob his employers. It is much more likely that the group suing Donny & Marie are looking for publicity.

I did not live near enough to Marie Osmond to run into her at the grocery store, so I cannot speak about her as clearly as I can about Donny Osmond. She did have an office not far from my neighborhood and it was not the fanciest office building you ever did see. It was just a nice one-story office park with brick, trees and a duck pond nearby. It was on a very busy road in an area that is not bad, but not the high-flying kind of area you would expect people who are living an exorbitant lifestyle to populate. The building did not even have a visible security force to keep out the riff-raff.

Based on their public behavior and what I observed while living in their community, I do not see them being greedy or money-grubbing types of people. It is not how they live their daily lives.