Costner and the Supremes
Forget the buffalo, Kevin Costner is doing some legal wrangling in South Dakota these days.
Mr. Dances with Wolves is asking the state's supreme court to review a lower court ruling forcing him to pony up $6.2 million to two former business partners who ran the Midnight Star, a casino the actor owns in the Black Hills, where much of his Oscar-winning opus was shot.
Costner, who owns a 93.5 percent share in the business, is hoping a favorable decision will let him sever ties with Francis and Carla Caneva, whom he hired to manage the Midnight Star.
The actor had given the Canevas a 6.5 percent stake in their partnership but sought to buy them out after he fired them in July 2004. The Canevas balked, however, sparking the current legal imbroglio.
In the original lawsuit trial, Costner brought in an accountant who estimated the value of the Star at $3.1 million. The Canevas had their own expert witness, a casino operator from nearby Deadwood (where HBO filmed its same-named TV series), who testified that the Star's gambling operations were worth double the amount.
The original judge sided with the managers, ordering Costner to pay $6.2 million for them to relinquish their stake or face the possibility the entire casino would be put up for sale on the open market.
The Bull Durham star appealed, claiming the Canevas' figure didn't adhere to Internal Revenue Service guidelines.
Michael Reynolds, the lawyer for Costner's company, Midnight Star Enterprises, has claimed the Canevas want to lock in value above $4.9 million, which is the point at which they'd actually start earning money from their initial investment.
Reynolds also argued the original ruling should also be overturned because the judge required the sale of the casino, whereas Costner wants to just end the partnership, but keep possession of the Midnight Star.
An attorney for the Canevas, Richard Plumier, told the Associated Press the judge was merely adhering to the terms laid out in the partnership agreement, which called for Costner to sell the business before the partners went their separate ways.
"This is Mr. Costner's agreement. I didn't write it," he said, while suggesting that Midnight Star was definitely worth more than the A-lister was letting on.
No word yet when the South Dakota Supreme Court will issue an opinion on the matter.
Costner, most recently onscreen in the new film The Guardian, has been keeping his lawyers plenty busy of late.
Last year, the 51-year-old performer filed an $8 million lawsuit against Ascendant Pictures for breaking an oral agreement for him to headline a romantic comedy titledTaming Ben Taylor. He also was named in a complaint last April brought by an unidentified female masseuse who claimed she was wrongfully terminated from her job after she complained about Costner alleged lewd behavior while on his honeymoon with his new wife in Scotland in 2004.
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