Lisa Kudrow Sued Over Friendly Debt

Ex-manager says actress hasn't paid him $50,000 in commissions since firing him in 2007

By Natalie Finn Aug 07, 2008 8:47 PMTags
Lisa KudrowSteve Granitz/Getty Images

It's great to have Friends. But sometimes all you need are lawyers.

Joining Matt LeBlanc in the fight against ticked-off business associates, Lisa Kudrow is now the target of a lawsuit that claims she stopped paying her former manager his guaranteed cut of her earnings after she fired him in 2007.

Scott Howard, who started working with the Emmy-nominated actress in 1991, long before she was climbing the Hollywood food chain as Phoebe Buffay, sued Kudrow for breach of contract Aug. 1. He says that since she gave him the boot, she has simply failed to pay him anything stemming from his days as her manager. (View the lawsuit.)

Per documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Kudrow paid Howard and his company, Howard Entertainment Inc., commissions from Friends totaling around $400,000 over the years. Friends ended in 2004 and she continued to cut him checks, according to the suit.

But now, Howard says, Kudrow owes him at least $50,000 for the TV, film and other entertainment work she did during the 15-plus years she worked with him—payments that weren't supposed to stop when the Friendship ended.

A rep for Kudrow opted not to comment, but at least the Comeback star knows where to find a kindred spirit. LeBlanc's ex-manager sued him last August for $1 million in unpaid commissions, saying he hadn't cut her a check since 2000. The actor petitioned the court last month to order a psych evaluation for his former colleague, arguing that any contract between them could be null and void if she was too unsound to handle his affairs.