Did Sonny and.cher Team Up Again After Tbeir Divorce

Call information technology a Cher fight.

Cher is suing Sonny Bono'southward widow over royalties to songs the pop icon made famous with her ex-husband as the musical duo Sonny & Cher.

Cher filed a $1-million federal lawsuit Wed against former Rep. Mary Bono, a trustee of the Bono Collection Trust, and other individuals, accusing them of breach of contract.

The 75-year-old entertainer claimed that Bono's fourth wife has tried to stop provisions that entitle Cher to 50% ownership of the duo's musical composition royalties, tape royalties and other assets from their marriage.

Some of the hits cited in the filing include "I Got You Babe," "The Shell Goes On," "Infant Don't Become," "Little Man" and "Blindside Bang (My Babe Shot Me Downwards)."

Mary Bono, left, and Cher appeared together at the 23rd GLAAD Media Awards in 2012.

(Vince Bucci / Associated Press)

The "Sonny & Cher Comedy Hour" stars began performing together in 1964, married in 1969 and divorced in 1975. Cher went on to become a solo superstar, making new hits similar "If I Could Plough Back Fourth dimension" and "Believe" and even winning an Oscar for her part in "Moonstruck."

Sonny Bono, who died in a Lake Tahoe skiing accident in 1998, pursued a career in California politics as a Republican congressman in Palm Springs. Mary Bono later on won his House seat and has appeared alongside Cher at diverse events over the years.

Cher declared that she and Sonny agreed to equal sectionalization of their community property when they settled their divorce in 1978.

Her legal team — led by the L.A. firm Davis Wright Tremaine LLP — contends that Sonny Bono "irrevocably assigned" those rights to Cher in 1978 "as her sole and separate property throughout the earth and in perpetuity." She "has been the unchallenged owner of her 50% share of all musical composition and record royalties during their collaboration and marriage," according to the xx-page complaint, obtained Thursday by The Times.

Mary Bono is accused of trying to disengage that agreement and deprive Cher of other long-established rights under the settlement, the lawsuit said.

"This action has become necessary because at present, more than forty years later [Cher] received her fifty% ownership of her and Sonny'south community holding, Sonny's 4th wife and widow, defendant Mary Bono, claims that a wholly inapplicable statutory termination provision of the Copyright Act of 1976 ... has undone [Cher's] ownership of her royalties from the songs and recordings that she and Sonny made famous during their marriage, and deprived [Cher] of other long-established rights under the 1978 understanding," the filing said.

But Mary Bono's squad contends that she was within her rights.

"The Copyright Act allows Sonny'due south widow and children to repossess Sonny's copyrights from publishers, which is what they did," Mary Bono's attorney, Daniel J. Schacht, said in a statement to The Times. "Rep. Bono remains open up to continuing a private give-and-take about this, but we are confident that, if necessary, the court volition affirm their position."

Cher'due south complaint said that in 2016, Sonny Bono'due south heirs, or a majority of them, and Wixen Music Publishing issued a notice of termination to various music publishers or other companies to whom Sonny Bono had granted a transfer or license of the renewal copyrights in the musical compositions.

The notice specified various constructive dates of termination ranging from 2018 to 2026 and was issued without Cher'due south knowledge or participation. Cher never requested that Wixen assist in the issuance of whatsoever notice of termination, the filing said.

Cher, center, Sonny Bono, right, and novelist Truman Capote perform in a comedy sketch in 1973 on Sonny and Cher's Goggle box show.

(Cal Montney / Los Angeles Times)

Last month, the Bono Collection Trust told Cher's representatives that the heirs' notice of termination besides terminated the stream of composition royalties that Sonny Bono assigned to her in 1978. Equally a result, the heirs' statutory termination ends her right to those royalties and would no longer pay her or her Veritas Trust, the lawsuit said.

The Bono Collection Trust likewise contends that Cher no longer has approving rights in agreements with third parties regarding musical compositions and composition royalties. She is as well no longer entitled to direct payment of her 50% of royalties from record companies or allowed to object to assistants fees in backlog of 10% and does not take the correct to cease the Wixen agreements, her lawyers said.

Cher disputes each of the Bono Collection Trust'southward contentions, according to the complaint. She is seeking $ane 1000000 in damages and wants a judge to enforce the 1978 divorce settlement splitting their royalties in the future.

Mary Bono has non nonetheless filed a response to Cher's lawsuit.

bellangerprackentind.blogspot.com

Source: https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/music/story/2021-10-14/cher-sues-sonny-bonos-widow-over-sonny-and-cher-royalties

Share this post