Judge Rules CAA May Have Blacklisted ‘The Newsroom’ Staff Writer but Didn’t Steal Pilot

In a decision handed down on Monday, a Los Angeles Superior Court judge ruled that CAA didn’t steal a pilot idea from former “The Newsroom” staff writer John Musero.

However, Judge Kerry Bensinger did determine that the agency may have blacklisted Musero and will allow that claim to be decided by a jury in a trial set to begin Oct. 27.

Musero, a former prosecutor and staff writer for Aaron Sorkin’s “The Newsroom,” filed his lawsuit in 2019. In it, he said he developed a pilot for a show set inside the U.S. Attorney General’s office and that CAA optioned the show, titled “Main Justice,” with the Mark Gordon Company.

CAA never developed the series, but Musero Musero accused the agency of developing “Main Justice” into a package presented to CBS in 2018 but with another writer, Sascha Penn, credited as the creator. Among the similarities between his show and the show presented to CBS, Musero said both pilots ended with the attorney general facing an assassination attempt.

Musero also accused CAA of breaching fiduciary duty by also originally optioning Musero’s pilot for minimal pay by only offering the show to The Mark Gordon Company, also a CAA client. Musero also said the studio failed to properly market another show he worked on and also failed to find him work after “The Newsroom” was canceled.

CAA of course denies all accusations.

Bensinger pegged her ruling in part to the influence of “The Newsroom” creator Aaron Sorkin’s “The West Wing” on both pilots, saying in part, “the style and pacing of each Main Justice project is attributable to the same influential television show… Further, in a legal-political project such as a DOJ television drama, ‘The West Wing’ style is a common type of presentation. Even if the court were to consider that element, it would not add much weight, especially when
both parties regard ‘The West Wing’ as representative of a particular style.”

Bensinger also said the other similarities weren’t protectable, and that there was evidence Penn’s pilot was written before Musero’s.

As to the blacklisting claim, according to the lawsuit CAA secretly placed Musero on a list of “underperforming writers” and that CAA hid from him that he was in danger of being dropped. Musero also said his agents basically stopped actively representing him.

CAA lawyers argued that the blacklisting claim should be tossed because there was “no authority to support that a talent agent or agency owes a duties of fidelity and honesty to clients.”

Bensinger rejected that argument, saying in part, “defendants are hard pressed to argue the proposition that a talent agent can act dishonestly, disloyally, and contrary to their client’s best interests with impunity. Generally, ‘[a]n agent is charged in full measure with the duty of honesty and loyalty toward his principal,
not only in form but in substance.’ (Kinert v. Wright (1947) 81 Cal.App.2d 919, 925.) Defendants fail to carve out talent agents from this general rule.”

“CAA is gratified by the judge’s ruling, dismissing John Musero’s claim that CAA misappropriated his idea for a pilot,” the agency said in part in a statement.

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