'Bones' stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, along with author and executive producer Kathy Reichs, have filed a lawsuit claiming they have been shortchanged "tens of millions of dollars" in profits by 20th Century Fox Television, the Fox network and affiliated companies.
The lawsuit claims they didn't see profits for years despite the success of the show. A similar case was also filed Nov. 25 by Barry Josephson, another executive producer of the show.
According to Hollywood Reporter, in the complaint filed in Los Angeles Superior Court on Monday, the trio claim Fox has underpaid them through accounting tricks in which a production division of the company licenses a show at an artificially discounted rate to the company's affiliated distribution channel. They claim also that Fox cheated them for revenue and employed tactics to lower license fees to show that the show had never profited, and withheld key documents that would help them better ascertain that they owed money.
Kathy Reichs alleges she was promised to be shared five percent of the profits. Deschanel and Boreanaz claimed that they were also entitled to three percent of the profits.
The Bones stars and Reichs claim that Fox negotiated with them with the threat of canceling the series until they accepted non-negotiable changes to license fees. The trio also uncovered "more than a dozen accounting errors, tricks, and deceitful acts that 20th TV has used to deprive plaintiffs of their entitlement to profits," the suit claims.
Union Oracle said just days after executive producer Barry Josephson sued Fox over fraudulent accounting practices, Bones stars Emily Deschanel and David Boreanaz, and executive producer Kathleen Reichs, are now going after Fox too for "tens of millions" they claim they were cheated from.
After the trio received nothing in profits despite the contract negotiations, they exercised audit rights and found they "were being cheated out of more than $100 million in gross revenues and being overcharged many additional millions of dollars in alleged expenses," they claim.
