De La Hoya in Legal Ring

Oscar De La Hoya's The Next Great Champ has already beaten back The Contender in court. Now there's a new challenger.

The boxing great has been put on the defensive by an independent film and television producer who's suing him for allegedly ripping off her idea for his new pugilistic reality series on Fox.

In a civil lawsuit filed Wednesday against De La Hoya and his Golden Boy Promotions in Los Angeles Superior Court, 33-year-old Leigh Ann Burton alleges she came up with the idea for a reality show chronicling a group of unknown boxers and their significant others as they undergo rigorous training and compete in a series of elimination-style challenges, with the ultimate victor winning a shot at a Las Vegas prize fight.

Among the claims cited in the complaint are breach of contract, breach of confidence and unfair competition.

According to court papers, Burton filed a treatment with the Writers Guild of America on Sept. 22, 2003. She then faxed it to Golden Boy Productions on Oct. 2, inquiring whether the company might be interested in developing the project.

Golden Boy CEO Richard Schaefer, who's also a defendant in the suit, allegedly warmed to the concept, and a meeting was set up on Oct. 7 in which Burton pitched the series to De La Hoya in a conference call and provided the parties with her treatment.

The suit states that Golden Boy and De La Hoya agreed not to use Burton's idea without her consent unless she was appropriately compensated.

On Nov. 5, Burton told Golden Boy that she entered into a pact with GRB Entertainment (producers of NBC's Next Action Star) to help develop the series. Fearing he might lose the deal, the suit says Schaefer subsequently invited Burton to a charity ball where she met De La Hoya. However, by January, talks between the two parties fizzled out.

In March, De La Hoya and Golden Boy got in the ring with Endemol USA and Fox and announced they were developing a boxing-oriented reality show, which eventually came to be titled The Next Great Champ.

Coincidentally (or not), Fox made the deal just days after NBC, DreamWorks and Survivor mastermind Mark Burnett announced they were joining forces to create a boxing show called The Contender, featuring Sylvester Stallone.

Burton's attorney, Bruce Broillet, says De La Hoya, Schaefer and Golden Boy swiped Burton's idea without her knowledge and without offering any compensation.

"Hollywood is a hotbed of idea theft that has worsened with the rising popularity of the reality TV show genre," says Broillet. "In order to win the ratings game, it appears that networks and producers are desperate to come up with fresh ideas at anyone's expense. They use their clout to lure new talent in and steal their ideas, with the end result being that the talent fears being blackballed by the industry if they object.

"This scenario is on point with what happened to Leigh Ann Burton. Yet she refuses to be a victim or to be intimidated into anonymity."

Burton's suit seeks unspecified compensatory and punitive damages. No hearings have yet been scheduled.

Fox, which is not named as a defendant, declined to comment on the lawsuit. Calls to Golden Boy Productions were not returned.

Burton's filing comes days after a Santa Monica judge denied a request by Burnett and DreamWorks for a temporary injunction to bar Fox from broadcasting the series. It was the second time the judge refused to block the series. The Contender brain trust still has a lawsuit pending against Fox claiming the network violated state rules when it staged its bouts. (Although NBC and Burnett have complained that Fox plagiarized the show in an effort to knock out NBC, the lawsuit does not make that allegation.)

That grudge match continues on Sept. 8 when both sides are due back in court for another hearing--though by that time, The Next Great Champ will already have hit the airwaves.