Will & Grace lawsuit ends, well... gracefully

Please excuse the pun, but the three month trial over $65 million for the licensing of Will & Grace has left many puzzled. The sitcom creators, Max Mutchnick and David Kohan sued NBC Studios for failing to properly negotiate licensing fees with the NBC network as well as representing less revenue than actually accrued.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that members of the jury confirmed that they had granted Mutchnick and Kohan $48.5 million before hearing of the settlement (that pays for a mighty fine brunch!). The settlement was announced on Friday moments before the judge was to decide on a mistrial. NBC had discovered that the jury foreman Dean Hartwell had a website that spoke negatively of large corporations including NBC. He was kicked off the jury because you know, most people don’t have a distaste for large corporations and they thought this was unfair.

Hartwell's online article in question was simply stating how the media concentrates on general interest pieces and misses out on more important issues. The precise quote which states NBC is at follows:

"How can the corporate media [...]miss all of these stories and annoy us with phony ones? Consider the sources: (The Walt Disney Company owns ABC, Viacom owns CBS, General Electric owns NBC and News Corporation owns Fox). The executives who make the decisions on what to air receive huge tax cuts..."

Hartwell also seems to be supportive of the gays. Should NBC have held that against him too? Best quote from his article “The outing of Senator Santorum” in regards to Santorum’s comparison of homosexual acts to incest and rape: “There's a big difference: polygamy, incest and adultery all have victims. Sodomy does not.” I guess that’s only if and when sodomy is not in combination with polygamy, incest or adultery.

To celebrate their multimillion dollar settlement, I’m sure our pals Mutchnick and Kohan will be out and about throwing cash in the air and dancing in the streets. Although some of that money needs to go into their new still-untitled straight/gay friendship sitcom starring Jay Mohr and Brian Austin Green. Could I suggest Phil and Chase?