14 DAY TRIAL // Former ice skating champ Oksana Baiul is going guns a-blazing after NBC for using her name to promote an event she hadn’t even agreed to do, it has emerged. She’s seeking compensation of up to $5 million (€3.68 million).
According to the New York Daily News, the network used Baiul’s name in relation to two TV specials that aired in December 2011 and January 2012, even though she never even agreed to be on them.
“Baiul on Monday sued the network’s sports division and the production company Disson Skating for promoting her involvement in two TV specials even though she hadn’t agreed to do them,” the publication reports.
“Baiul did not appear in the shows — a Dec. 15, 2011 event with the group Styx and a Jan. 19, 2012 show with the singer Kenny G,” adds the same media outlet.
As she puts it in court documents, by advertising her appearance on the two specials and then not having her showed up, NBC made her look irresponsible because she was a “no show,” as if she’d agreed to be on the shows but later changed her mind, breaching the agreement in the process.
“(That) damages her goodwill with her loyal fans that purchased tickets (often months in advance) expecting to see her perform,” the lawsuit alleges.
Stephen Disson of Disson Skating has issued a statement to say the lawsuit is “weird” because his company never publicly disclosed details of Baiul’s appearance on the show.
At the same time, he explains that Baiul was the one to ask for a spot on the show even though she’d been on it before but had not performed as expected.
He also says that Baiul called the whole thing off a few weeks later, without as much as offering a proper explanation but insisting that Disson “stop calling” her, which he did.
No word yet on why it took Baiul’s management and legal team so long to file the suit, or whether it’s in any way related to another lawsuit that made headlines in November last year, when she took her former agency to court over loss of profit since 1994.