Judge Rules for Buchwald in Movie Authorship Fight

Columnist Art Buchwald’s contention that the comedy “Coming to America” descended from a treatment he created for Paramount Pictures Corp. was upheld Monday in Los Angeles County Superior Court, a verdict that could force an engrossing legal voyage through the mysterious straits of studio bookkeeping.

Having won support for his claim of authorship, Buchwald now must challenge in court Paramount’s position that the Eddie Murphy film grossed a whopping $350 million but still did not manage to net a profit. Buchwald’s original contract with the studio entitled him to a share of the net profits--not the gross.

Judge Harvey Schneider issued his tentative decision for Buchwald in a 34-page written ruling that sought, in keeping with Hollywood tradition, to spread around the credit for a movie that starred Murphy in the role of an African prince searching for a bride in New York.

“(The court) concludes that ‘Coming to America’ is a movie that was ‘based upon’ Buchwald’s treatment, ‘King for a Day,’ ” wrote Schneider, adding nonetheless that the comedy “is no less the product of Eddie Murphy’s creativity because of the court’s decision.”

Murphy was credited with writing the original story for “Coming to America.” According to Schneider’s decision, Murphy may well have developed the story for his movie primarily through his own efforts. But, he ruled, the film’s origins can be traced to Paramount’s 1983 contract with Buchwald and subsequent scripts developed from Buchwald’s story. The studio paid $500,000 to two screenwriters from 1983 through 1985 to turn “King for a Day” into an Eddie Murphy comedy, the judge noted.

Appeal Planned

Attorneys for Paramount said they will appeal the verdict. Both sides have 10 days to take issue with all or parts of Schneider’s ruling before it becomes final.

In a victory for the studio, the judge ruled that Buchwald was not entitled to punitive damages. His attorneys had argued in the trial, heard without a jury, that the judge should teach studios a lesson and award Buchwald punitive damages of $5 million.

Now, in a secondary trial phase, Buchwald and co-plaintiff Alain Bernheim, a veteran Hollywood producer, will demand a complete accounting of the movie’s earnings.

Buchwald attorney Pierce O’Donnell expects that phase to start in Schneider’s courtroom by month’s end. He dubbed it “the third act” of a three-act play, with the filing of the lawsuit and last month’s two-week trial constituting the first and second acts.

“There’s a dark cloud over the mountain on Paramount’s logo tonight,” he said.

In preparation for this phase, Buchwald attorneys have asked for volumes of internal Paramount documents that, if produced, could provide an extraordinary public accounting of the expenses and proceeds of a blockbuster film. Hollywood goes to great lengths to keep such trade information secret.

Paramount President Ned Tanen testified that “Coming to America”--one of the 20 highest-grossing movies of the past decade--has not yet earned any net profits.

In their original suit, Buchwald, a Pulitzer Prize-winning columnist, and Bernheim asked for $5 million plus whatever the judge might want to award the writer/producer team to make an example of Paramount’s alleged breach of contract. Under terms of the 1983 contract, Buchwald and Bernheim were to get $265,000 plus 19% of the net profits of any movie eventually made from “King for a Day.”

“The judge’s decision means that the claim he’s been making for the past 1 1/2 years that Eddie Murphy and Paramount ripped him off is baseless,” said attorney Bob Draper. “Basically, they spent $1 million (in attorney fees) to get $250,000.”

He maintained that there will be no net profits for Buchwald and Bernheim to share.

For its part, the studio issued the following terse statement:

“We don’t agree with the judge’s decision on the contract claim. However, we are pleased he threw out the claim for punitive damages. We are confident that the appellate court will find that ‘Coming to America’ was created without any contribution from Art Buchwald.”

In a telephone interview from his Washington office, the 64-year-old Buchwald expressed delight with the decision but added that he would never want to go through the ordeal again.

Buchwald said that winning money was never the point to him, but that he hoped to strike a blow for creative people in Hollywood. He said ideas and stories are often usurped by unscrupulous executives and producers with writers in particular receiving little or no compensation.

Help for Writers

“This may help writers a bit,” Buchwald said of the ruling.

The humorist sought to keep the matter in perspective, quipping: “This doesn’t change Noriega’s position, I’ll tell you that.”

In rendering his decision, Schneider traced a paper trail that linked Buchwald’s first story treatment, originally titled “It’s a Crude, Crude World,” to scripts written by Paramount screenwriters Tab Murphy and Francis Veber to the Eddie Murphy film. Along the way were several interoffice Paramount memos showing that the studio’s hierarchy knew the screenplays were being written for Murphy.

In his decision, Schneider laid full blame for breaching the contract on Paramount.

“Finally, the court wishes again to emphasize that its decision is in no way intended to disparage the creative talent of Eddie Murphy,” he wrote. “It was Paramount and not Murphy who prepared the agreement in question.”

Buchwald’s original story, “It’s a Crude, Crude World,” was about an African king who goes to Washington in hopes of getting nuclear arms and winds up taking a bride home with him. Even Buchwald admitted that it bore little resemblance to the “black fairy tale” that Murphy claimed responsibility for bringing to the screen.

In the Murphy story, an African prince goes to New York in search of a bride. Like the Buchwald character, Murphy’s Prince Akeem winds up in the ghetto where he has a series of misadventures before he finds his queen and returns to his native land.

Schneider ruled that Buchwald and Bernheim were not entitled to punitive damages because Paramount did not act in bad faith or with fraud or malice when it failed to honor the contract to buy the Buchwald story.

An admitted film buff, Schneider decided the case himself after both sides waived a jury trial. He spent a week writing his verdict.

Murphy did not appear on the stand during the trial but did say in a deposition that he co-authored the story for “Coming to America” with his co-star, talk-show host Arsenio Hall.

The first phase of the trial delivered entertainment value in its own right, as Hall, Buchwald and a parade of ranking moguls and near-moguls testified, often with professional wit, about their adventures in the film trade.

NEXT STEP

The Buchwald breach-of-contract lawsuit now will enter a second phase, in which the columnist must prove “Coming to America” has earned a profit that he can share. This is expected to begin in late January, and will be conducted even if, as expected, the studio appeals Monday’s decision supporting Buchwald’s claim that he helped create the movie. The accounting phase could last as long as a week, and might produce some provocative documents detailing how books are kept for a single picture.