K&C Sports & Entertainment Law Weekly Roundup - May 2026 #2

Entertainment:

LAWSUITS OF THE RICH & FAMOUS

• Blake Lively has settled her claims accusing Justin Baldoni's production company of orchestrating a smear campaign after she accused her It Ends With Us co-star of sexually harassing her, the actors announced in a joint statement, just two weeks before the case was set to go to trial in NY federal court. Blake Lively, Justin Baldoni got no money in lawsuit settlement

FILM & TELEVISION

• Photographer Annie Leibovitz’s licensing agency wrongly lost its copyright lawsuit over an online magazine’s use of her picture of the Star Wars movie cast based on a misunderstanding of standing law, the 11^th Circuit said. Annie Leibovitz ‘Star Wars’ Photo Suit Revived by Appeals Court
• Filmmaker James Cameron and Twentieth Century Fox Film Corp. based the likeness of an “Avatar” character on the features of indigenous actress Q’orianka Kilcher without her permission, she said in a lawsuit. https://newspub.live/business/avatar-suit-focuses-on-hot-topic-in-a-i-age-a-characters-face/
• A Sony Pictures Television programming executive with decades of experience overseeing productions and adaptations of popular shows like Everybody Loves Raymond and The Nanny claims she was fired months before her 60th birthday after voicing concerns over the studio's alleged pattern of pushing out women in leadership roles who are older than 60. Sony Pictures Biased Against Older Women, Fired Exec Says - Law360

MUSIC

• DJ Khalil testified in a CA copyright infringement suit that he was initially excited Ye was using his instrumental track for what became the rapper's Grammy-winning song "Hurricane," but ultimately sought help from an artists’ rights company when he hit a "dead end" seeking payment from the rapper. Ye Faces First Copyright Trial Over Uncleared Sample in Donda Songs
• The Rolling Stones’ record label has reached a settlement with Behr Process LLC over the paint company’s allegedly unauthorized use of the band’s 1966 hit “Paint It Black” on social media. Rolling Stones ‘Paint It Black’ Owner Settles Instagram Ad Lawsuit

ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE

• Book publishers and legal novelist Scott Turow hit Meta Platforms Inc. with a proposed class action in NY federal court, accusing it of training its Llama large language models on millions of copyrighted books and articles from pirate sites instead of licensing the material. Publishers, author Scott Turow accuse Meta and Mark Zuckerberg of training AI on copyrighted works - CBS News
• In a legal move that underscores the growing concerns over data privacy, OpenAI is facing a proposed class-action lawsuit in CA federal court. The case, filed by a ChatGPT user, alleges that OpenAI disclosed private user information to tech giants Meta Platforms and Google without obtaining proper consent from its users. This suit highlights ongoing tensions regarding user data management and privacy in the AI-driven tech landscape. OpenAI Faces Class-Action Lawsuit Over Alleged Data Privacy Violations with Tech Giants – Legal News Feed