Tina Fey & Paramount Are Facing Legal Action From 'Mean Girls' Author Over Lack of Compensation

justjared.com:

Rosalind Wiseman is taking matters into her own hands. She is the author of “Queen Bees and Wannabees”, which is the inspiration for the wildly successful Mean Girls franchise, and in a report from New York Post, is thinking about legal action over unpaid compensation she feel is deserved given the success. Keep reading to find out more… Rosalind argues that her contract, which included the film and any other works rights for $400,000, also included net profits, which are the residual gains dependent on how the movie fares at the box office.

According to her however, she has not been paid for that. She is apparently requesting more compensation because the franchise has now “changed our culture and changed the zeitgeist.

Yes, I had a terrible contract, but the movie has made so much money, and they keep recycling my work over and over again, so to not even consider me.” Rosalind added that while working with Tina Fey was a key in why she first signed, the relationship has soured now. “Over the years Tina’s spoken so eloquently about women supporting other women, but it’s gotten increasingly clear to me that, in my own personal experience, that’s not going to be the experience.” Rosalind also claims that she was actually approached for a musical decades ago, but wasn’t able to say yes, because of the contract with Paramount and Tina, as they had ownership rights in that medium. “What’s hard is that they used my name in the Playbill,” she says. “And Tina, in her interviews, said I was the inspiration and the source, but there was no payment.” Rosalind‘s lawyer, Ryan Keech, added, “I suspect most people would be shocked at how shabbily Rosalind Wiseman has been treated.