Charlie Sheen, the former star of the hit TV show Two and a Half Men, turned to hardball litigator Marty Singer to file a $100 million lawsuit in March against his former employers, WB Studio Enterprises Inc. and Chuck Lorre Productions, after they fired him from the record $1.8 million-per-episode gig. Before filing the suit, he had been hospitalized for what he said was a hernia and was undergoing rehabilitation for drug addiction at his house. The lawsuit followed a media campaign in which he described himself as having “Adonis DNA” and “tiger blood.” The case settled confidentially out of court in September, although reports estimated the value at $25 million. Sheen defended his antics to NBC thus: “I’m tired of pretending like I’m not special. I’m tired of pretending like I’m not a total bitchin’ rock star from Mars.”
JACKSON
DENOUEMENT
A Los Angeles jury convicted Conrad Murray, the personal physician of the late Michael Jackson, of involuntary manslaughter in November. He had pleaded not guilty to charges that he injected Jackson with a lethal dose of the anesthetic propofol just days before the singer’s “This is It” comeback tour was to begin in London. Murray, represented by J. Michael Flanagan, was sentenced later to four years in jail. The Houston doctor plans to appeal his conviction, and has asked for a public defender. His civil attorney, Charles Peckham, reportedly later complained about the strict security jail officials enforced for Murray in jail: “Treating him like Hannibal Lecter is offensive.”
