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Books Caught in Prepub Legal Battles
Judy Quinn -- 9/1/97
We alerted you over a month ago online that the autobiography by Michael Eisner, to be written with Tony Schwartz and originally scheduled for fall by Random House, was delayed. More recently, the house announced it officially, noting that the delay has nothing to do with the book becoming part of the civil lawsuit against Eisner filed by former Disney exec Jeffrey Katzenberg. A retired judge, working as a referee in the discovery part of the case, has just ordered Eisner (not Random House) to produce relevant portions of his book and all the material used to prepare it. We'll see what emerges when the case g s to trial November 18.
A more ominous action against a book, according to William Morrow counsel Victor Kovner, was a broad subp na issued by Whitewater investigator Kenneth Starr that required the house to turn over all ongoing editorial material related to Friends in High Places, a planned 1998 book by former Clinton confidant Webster Hubbell. This was round two of legal inquiry into this book, originally signed by HarperCollins but canceled in July 1996, when a then-imprisoned Hubbell was unable to deliver the book in time to publish around the presidential election. HarperCollins was subp naed about the book this past winter and supplied materials; Morrow filed a motion to quash the subp na and, at press time, had gotten the scope of the subp na narrowed to include only financial records.
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