Did Will Smith really give away the ending to I Am Legend the other day? Is he in trouble now? Can the studio sue for that? Can you tell us what the ending is, or will you get sued?
—Candace, Chicago
The B!tch Replies: Sweetie, it's a vampire movie. Big Willie either gets eaten by the vampires, or he doesn't. There is a 50 percent chance you already know the ending. The only real mystery is whether the requisite hot girl dies or survives, in which case, she and Big Willie probably skitter away to safety, free to make the children that will save the human race through their selfless incest.
For the record, yes, Smith apparently did make some sort of boo-boo Tuesday during a press conference in Tokyo. Reports indicate he accidentally revealed the ending of I Am Legend. What he actually said is unclear; instead of doing their jobs, the reporters covering the conference chose to help Warner Bros. make more money by not repeating Smith's words.
Most movie contracts ban actors from discussing confidential details of a film without express consent of producers or a studio, attorneys tell me. Specifically, contracts usually restrict actors from blabbing "any confidential information with respect to Producer or the Picture...without Producer's prior consent."
Actors who violate such agreements open themselves up to lawsuits, attorneys say. But that rarely happens.
"You'd have to prove damages," bicoastal entertainment attorney Justin Wineburgh says. "And that's always a problem. And, realistically, they're not going to hold liable a guy like Will Smith."
Obviously. Premiere magazine recently crowned Smith the most powerful actor in Hollywood. He has commanded up to $28 million a picture, according to reports. As power publicist Howard Bragman put it to me, "What are they going to do, say, 'All right, Will, now you get only $19 million'?"
Even without strict contracts, most actors know better than to blab about their movie plots. Bragman's client Lizzy Caplan is costarring in JJ Abrams' fiercely secretive Cloverfield project, a monster movie of some kind coming out in January.
"Paramount has gotten the word out, in every way, to everyone associated with this movie, to please respect the privacy of the process, and Lizzy hasn't had a problem with that," Bragman says. "So now, there are only two things I don't ask her about: her love life and Cloverfield."
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