Burnett Rocked by Plagiarism Suit

Thu., Mar. 8, 2007 2:49 PM PST by Josh Grossberg

Here's one Rock Star jam Mark Burnett wants no part of.

The reality TV guru behind Survivor and The Apprentice is being sued by an unknown writer-director who claims Burnett ripped off the idea for the CBS franchise that launched in 2005 with Rock Star: INXS and continued with last summer's Rock Star: Supernova.

Sharlene Sullivan says in her lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court earlier this week and first reported by TMZ, that she dreamed up an idea in 2002 "wherein lead vocalists for rock bands would compete and would be judged by well-known musicians/rock stars."

Burnett's rep, Mary Beth O'Toole at the Dowd Agency, declined to comment on the allegations.

Sullivan says her initial treatment, which she registered with the Writers Guild of America in 2003, outlined the basics of the series, including filming the contestants' daily interactions as they lived together in a house in Los Angeles, their auditions before the judges and weekly eliminations, until only one "rock-and-roll star" remained.

After registering her synopsis with the WGA, Sullivan says she began shopping her idea around Tinseltown, eventually getting a copy to Michael Simon, a director whose credits included helming music videos for INXS.

Sullivan says she met with Simon in the green room of Jimmy Kimmel Live, the show he was directing at the time, and he introduced her around as his "producing partner."

But their budding partnership soon fell apart. According to the suit, Simon ceased communicating with Sullivan, except to "encourage her to abandon the project and write an unrelated treatment regarding transvestites."

Simon eventually went to work with Burnett, helming the eighth season of Survivor and Burnett's boxing-themed competition, The Contender. Burnett then announced he was working on a new reality TV series using the American Idol formula to find a replacement singer for INXS. The following summer, Rock Star debuted on CBS, executive produced by Burnett and Simon.

Sullivan is seeking more than $2 million in damages from the two producers and the network, for allegedly using her ideas without proper compensation.

This isn't the first legal battle Burnett has had over Rock Star. A Southern California punk outfit called Supernova, whose song "Chewbacca" appeared on the Clerks soundtrack, sued Burnett & Co. last year over the name. That forced the Tommy Lee-led band of season two to change its name to Rock Star Supernova for its album and tour.

Sullivan's attorney, Steven T. Lowe, said there were at least two connections linking his client to the development of Rock Star—Simon and his agent.

"It wasn't like she made a direct pitch to Mr. Burnett," the legal eagle said. "But she had a treatment, and it's pretty much the whole show."

When asked what took Sullivan so long to take legal action, Lowe said her father had been ill and that she had gone to another lawyer, who ultimately passed.

As for her own credits, or lack thereof, the lawyer acknowledged that Sullivan has mainly done "small stuff and hasn't gotten her big break yet."

Burnett, meanwhile, is arguably the king of reality television. Aside from his established shows, he appears on track to have another hit with Fox's Are You Smarter Than a 5h Grader? The Jeff Foxworthy-led quiz show averaged 25 million viewers over its three episodes last week, ranking as Fox's highest debut ever.

On May 16, the network will roll out On the Lot, a show produced by Burnett and Steven Spielberg in which aspiring filmmakers battle for a $1 million development deal. The show has received more than 12,000 submissions from wannabe auteurs.