A judge Friday dismissed a lawsuit brought by actress Tatyana Ali against Warner Bros. and Time Warner Inc. in which she alleged they stole her idea for a show similar to “The Real.”
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Daniel Murphy finalized a tentative ruling he issued Thursday.
Ali, who co-starred in the 1990s TV series “The Fresh Prince of Bel- Air,” filed her lawsuit on July 15, alleging fraud and misappropriation of trade secrets. Defense attorneys maintained that most of her claims are barred by the California Uniform Trade Secrets Act.
Murphy said Ali’s lawyers did not address the defense’s CUTSA claims preemption argument, thus impliedly conceding its merits.
Ali, 38, says she approached the defendants in 2012 to produce a show that featured “an eclectic group of engaging female celebrity hosts, each aged within their 20s and 30s,” in a “relaxed and informal setting.”
The producers ultimately decided to pass on her proposal, but six months later “The Real” aired in July 2013 “to the complete exclusion of the plaintiff,” the suit states.
Ali alleges “The Real” was a direct copy of her idea because it features an “ethnically diverse female celebrity host panel” that “even includes several of the same exact female celebrity hosts that the plaintiff directly named and specifically suggested to the defendants within her concept.”
