14 DAY TRIAL // “Friends” was a goldmine for everyone involved and, to this day, even if it wrapped almost a decade ago, it still generates a pretty profit. In 2008, Scott Howard, Lisa Kudrow’s former manager, sued her for failing to pay him his due commission and, just hours ago, a judge sided with him on the matter.
The actress, who played the airheaded Phoebe Buffay on the series, testified in court one week ago, saying that she had paid Howard all they had agreed upon when they struck a verbal understanding at the start of their relationship.
He represented her between 2001 and 2007, taking her to court in 2008 on claims that she owed him no less than $8 million (€5.8 million) in residuals, because she had agreed to pay him a cut of all the moneys she would make off “Friends” even after it was pulled off the air.
TMZ reports that the judge sided with Howard, ruling that Kudrow still owed him money. However, they didn’t agree on the amount, with the judge ordering the actress to pay her former manager $1.6 million (€1.17 million).
It’s a far cry from how much Howard was hoping to get, but it’s still a fortune.
When she started on “Friends,” Kudrow would make $13,500 (€9,886) per episode. As the show’s popularity soared, so did the paychecks of the six castmembers, who always negotiated their contracts in bulk. In 2000, Kudrow, just like the other 5 stars, made $1,040,000 (€761,235) for a single episode of “Friends.”