Julie Michaels, stunt double for actress Pamela Anderson in the television series “VIP,” is suing the show’s producers in Los Angeles Superior Court for breach of contract and tortious discharge. Michaels missed the last five episodes of the 1997 season because she broke her back during a stunt. According to her complaint, show producers Larry Rappaport and Morgan Gindal “questioned whether Michaels wanted more money or a role on the show in order to return.”
Michaels alleges she said that she only wanted to return in the same position that she had been in before the injury, but that Rappaport told her “that they had decided to go in a different direction and hire someone else to be Pamela Anderson’s stunt double.” Michaels also claims that she came up with the premise for the series along with Anderson and J.F. Lawton and helped fund the production of action scenes that were used to sell the show. When the series was sold, Michaels claims she was told “that she had been written into Pamela Anderson’s contract as her one and only stunt double.” Michaels says that because of this and because the series was guaranteed at least a two-year run, she left her job as the stunt double for the lead on “Black Scorpion” and changed her appearance to match Anderson’s. Los Angeles attorney Mitchell R. Stein of the Law Offices of Kreger and Stein (323-876-8118) is representing Michaels. Michaels v. Lafitte Productions Inc., BC229470.
