So far Charlie Sheen has made good on his intimations that he would be considerably scaling back his media blitz, and now we see a possible reason why: Today Sheen and his attorneys filed a $100 million lawsuit (plus punitive damages) against Warner Bros. and Chuck Lorre, with Sheen’s lawyer Marty Singer arguing that Sheen’s firing came only as a result of Lorre’s ego, which was bruised when Sheen took to the air to relentlessly criticize him, and is in violation of several laws of heaven and earth. It’s out of the ether and into the court system now, God help us all.
In the suit—which is also filed on behalf of the rest of the Two And A Half Men cast and crew, with whom we’re sure Sheen will evenly split the proceeds—Singer argues, “Chuck Lorre, one of the richest men in television who is worth hundreds of millions of dollars, believes himself to be so wealthy and powerful that he can unilaterally decide to take money away from the dedicated cast and crew of the popular television series, Two And A Half Men, in order to serve his own ego and self-interest, and make the star of the Series the scapegoat for Lorre's own conduct.” As though that weren’t Machiavellian enough, Singer also characterizes Sheen’s dismissal as a “conspiracy,” one orchestrated well before Sheen began his media tirade, all because Lorre wanted more time to concentrate on his other shows The Big Bang Theory and Mike & Molly, with Sheen set up to take the fall because Lorre hated him. For good measure, Singer also throws in the idea that Sheen was fired while he was “sick,” which violates state and federal laws; oddly, the documents make no mention of Sheen’s ability to cure disease with his mind.
So, definitely a lot going on there—and as we mentioned yesterday, Warner Bros. plans to mount a more tangible defense based on Sheen’s off-screen behavior being detrimental to his performance, including printouts of all his various tabloid scandals and even possibly a video reel of Sheen flubbing his lines and so on. However, you have to admit that Singer does have one solid argument in his favor: Warner Bros. claims they fired Sheen because of his “conduct and condition,” but Singer points out that at the arguable height of Sheen’s misbehaviors, when Sheen faced a 2009 felony charge of assaulting ex-wife Brooke Mueller, CBS actually gave him a big ol’ raise, suggesting they were able to take just about anything from Sheen except being insulted. Anyway, Sheen himself has so far broken his self-imposed silence to offer only this: “#Fastball; Torpedo away… You corporate Trolls were warned. And now you've been served!” We’re guessing that’s pretty much all we’re going to hear from him today, which would be nice. We could all use a break.