Bobby Brown suing Showtime over
Whtiney:Can I Be Me
Bobby Brown Sues Showtime & BBC For Multiple Millions Over Whitney Houston Docu
by
Erik Pedersen November 28, 2018 9:10am
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Bobby Brown says a 2017 documentary about his late wife
Whitney Houston used more than a half-hour’s worth of footage of him and his children without his consent — and that’s good enough for a lawsuit. The one-time New Edition and solo R&B hitmaker has filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit against
Showtime and the
BBC over their film
Whitney: Can I Be Me.
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BBC Eyes More 'Whitney: Can I Be...
“The film contains footage that Brown and [his
late daughter
Bobbi Kristina Brown] has never consented to have released,” according the suit filed Tuesday in New York District Court (read it
here). “Brown and [his late daughter] appear in the film for a substantial period of time, in excess of thirty (30) minutes. … Brown never signed or executed a release for the airing of the material that appears in the film.”
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The filing also says: “The film contains images of [Brown’s] other children, Landon Brown, Robert ‘Bobby’ Brown Jr. and LaPrincia Brown as minor children. Brown never consented to have his children appear in the film
Can I Be Me and his children never consented.”
Showtime declined comment on the suit, which also lists the estate of Bobbi Kristina Brown — Brown’s daughter with Houston — as a plaintiff.
Whitney: Can I Be Me premiered at the 2017 Tribeca Film Festival and aired on Showtime in North America and the BBC in the UK. The suit also notes that the docu was sold to Germany, Italy and the Netherlands “without the consent of the Plaintiffs. All the Defendants are keenly aware that intellectual property about the Plaintiffs and Houston are very valuable and of interest to the public,” it adds.
Brown is the subject of
The Bobby Brown Story, a docudrama miniseries that
scored solids ratings for BET in March.