Even Snoop Dogg's more productive pastimes are subject to the long arm of the law these days.
The rapper's youth football league was sued last week by a New York-based media company, which claims that Snoop's foundation entered into a bogus reality-show deal with them when it was already under contract with 20th Century Fox.
According to the lawsuit, filed in New York Superior Court, Snoop had given Natural Resources Media & Technology Group exclusive rights to team footage for pay-per-view, cable and DVD/home video distribution in exchange for a $100,000 production budget and a share of any revenue.
Natural Resources, which is seeking $250,000 in damages plus attorney's fees, had been planning to film the Snoop Youth Football League players as they prepared for the annual Snooperbowl championship game, the complaint states.
Instead, per court documents, it turned out that the SYFL had a pre-existing deal with 20th Century Fox to develop a feature film, and when the studio learned about Snoop's second arrangement it sent a letter to all parties involved informing them of Fox's "exclusive rights to portray Snoop in any motion picture or television project or other production based on Snoop's involvement with his sons' football teams and leagues."
The companies working with Natural Resources included production company TV One, Strange Fruit Film and TV and Axcess Sports & Entertainment, all of whom, according to the plaintiff, "withdrew from their agreements and ceased recording the events" once the letter from Fox made the rounds.
"Fox already has made a huge investment in our project and if you continue to move forward with your television project in violation of Fox's rights, it will severely impact the viability of our theatrical motion picture," Michael Ross, Fox's senior VP of legal affairs, wrote in the letter dated Oct. 13, 2006.
Fox has been developing a feature film called Coach Snoop with screenwriters Mark Gibson and Philip Halprin, according to the Hollywood Reporter.
When Natural Resources informed Snoop that he was in breach of contract because he had sold the media company creative rights that he had no authority to sell, the Doggfather failed to "cure the breach," the plaintiff's attorney, Bradley Rosen, told the trade publication.
Perhaps Snoop has been too busy taking care of the various other breaches on his record. The rapper was busted three times in three months last year, twice for weapon and drug possession and once for, well, just weapon possession.
He's scheduled to be arraigned Jan. 11 on charges he's facing from his latest arrest, a Nov. 28 collar for illegally possessing a handgun, possessing cocaine, transporting marijuana and having a false compartment in his car.