Cameo Clips

A woman who filed suit over a personal and professional relationship with best-selling author James Patterson can proceed with some of her claims against Patterson, a Manhattan federal district court decided. Sharp v. Patterson, 03 Civ. 8772 (GEL). Christina Sharp claimed that she had contributed in various ways to several of Patterson's books. Patterson moved to dismiss the complaint. In her breach of contract claim, Sharp cited “the natural and foreseeable consequences of Mr. Patterson's failure to publicly acknowledge her contributions to [the novel] Cat & Mouse, his failure to dedicate Cat & Mouse to her and his failure to compensate her for her contributions.” The district court noted that “the complaint presents facts showing damages from the alleged breach, specifically, the withholding of her purported share of the financial proceeds, and thus for the purposes of this motion satisfies the basic pleading requirement with regard to damages in a breach of contract claim.” The court also found that the breach of contract claim wasn't preempted because the alleged contract created a right that didn't exist under copyright law. Neither was Sharp's implied contract claim preempted at this stage of the case. But the court decided that Sharp's misappropriation claim over the Patterson novel “Suzanne's Diary” should be dismissed noting, “Since her complaint alleges that Suzanne's Diary is based on Sharp and Patterson's mutual romance, and that Patterson suggested she model [a book that Sharp wrote] after their romance, it is undisputable that the idea for Sharp's book lacked novelty for Patterson.”