Academy Sues Over Mary Pickford's Oscar

http://cbs2.com/topstories/local_story_244102939.html ^ | Sep 1, 2007 7:27 am US/Pacific

[BenLurkin]

AP) LOS ANGELES The Motion Picture Academy of Arts & Sciences is suing to stop the public sale of two Academy Awards given to silent film star Mary Pickford.

In the lawsuit filed Wednesday, the academy claims it has the right to buy the historic statuettes and one owned by her late husband for $10 each.

The academy contends an heir to the Oscars demanded $500,000 for one statuette alone in July -- an offer the academy refused.

Pickford won the Academy Award for best actress in 1930 and was given an honorary Oscar in 1975.

When she died in 1979, they went to her one-time husband, Charles "Buddy" Rogers, the lawsuit said.

In 1986, Rogers won the academy's Jean Hersholt Humanitarian Award, and when he died all three awards went to his second wife, Beverly. She died in January, leaving the statuettes to her heirs, who are co-executors of her estate.

The lawsuit names three of the heirs, in their roles as co-executors. It alleges anticipatory breach of contract.

The suit claims that academy bylaws dating from 1950 and agreements signed by Oscar winners give the academy the first chance to buy Oscars for $10 each if they ever go on the market.

"If the public believes that any multimillionaire can buy an Oscar, then it becomes cheapened," David W. Quinto, an attorney representing the academy, said Friday. "It becomes an article of commerce rather than a very prestigious award."

Quinto said Pickford was a founder of the academy and helped approve the Oscar design.

"From the academy's point of view it's just unthinkable that Mary Pickford ... would ever consent to do anything that would ever cheapen it in the eyes of the public," he said.

A call to John Shevlin, an attorney representing Beverly Rogers' estate, was not immediately returned.

[BenLurkin]

[ThomasThomas]

This really would make Hollywood look sleazy. We all know that the Oscar is given solely on merit.

[SoldierMedic]

The suit claims that academy bylaws dating from 1950 and agreements signed by Oscar winners give the academy the first chance to buy Oscars for $10 each if they ever go on the market.

That oscar from 1930 should be fair game for the open market, but if a contact was written in 1950, the other's should be $10 for the academy.

[Smokin' Joe]

Typical Hollywierd. Buying an Oscar (statuette) for half a million dollars makes the award look cheap, so they have the right to purchase it for ten bucks...Ri-ight.

[weegee]

So an Oscar is only worth 10 bucks?

[weegee]

HR Gieger reportedly put his Oscar upside down in a bucket of dirt for display.

[television is just wrong]

my stepfather won an emmy for screen writing. He refused to display it because he said he won it for writing garbage.

[SunkenCiv]

I hear that the entertainment industry is pro-family, oh, and really hard up financially.

[SunkenCiv]

“Pickford won the Academy Award for best actress in 1930... The suit claims that academy bylaws dating from 1950...”

[Gay State Conservative]

my stepfather won an emmy for screen writing. He refused to display it because he said he won it for writing garbage.

What,did he work for Chronkite?

[Gay State Conservative]

So an Oscar is only worth 10 bucks?

Given the quality of the work that earns these Oscars most aren't even worth that.

[television is just wrong]

soap operas

[Gay State Conservative]

soap operas

So he *did* work for Chronkite.I knew it! ;-)

[SampleMan]

We all know that the Oscar is given solely on merit.

What a delightful bit of humor. Very good.

[Revelation 911]

sorry academy - you gave them as a gift - they are her property and now the property of her estate - get over yourself

[PAR35]

So they think an award given in 1930 is covered by a 1950 bylaw?

[BenLurkin]

[upsdriver]

I haven’t followed the Academy Awards since they refused to give Dawn Wells an Oscar for her portrayal of Mary Ann in Rescue from Gilligan’s Island. Those people have no taste.