ONE OF the executive producers of the documentary Farrah’s Story is suing actor Farrah Fawcett’s former boyfriend, best friend and others, alleging that they physically threatened him and took advantage of the actor’s declining health to seize control of the film.
In a suit filed on Wednesday in Los Angeles county superior court, producer Craig Nevius accuses actor Ryan O’Neal of attempting to force him off the project and threatening him when he refused to leave.
Nevius also accused actor Alana Stewart, one of Fawcett’s friends, who filmed much of the footage in the documentary with Fawcett’s video camera, of “trying to take advantage of Ms Fawcett’s condition to force Mr Nevius to pay her more money and give her a different credit” on the film.
The film about Fawcett’s battle with cancer was scheduled to be broadcast last night on NBC.
A spokesman for O’Neal and Stewart criticised Nevius for the timing of the lawsuit.
“This has been a very difficult time for Ryan O’Neal,” Paul Bloch said.
“When you see something like this, you have to question the motive of someone who can be so hurtful during this very sensitive time in a person’s life.”
According to the lawsuit, Nevius said he worked closely with Fawcett on the documentary for about two years. Fawcett requested that the film meet certain criteria: “That it not have ‘talking heads’ reminiscing about Ms Fawcett in the past tense; that it not be about Ms Fawcett’s relationship with O’Neal; that O’Neal not be a producer [on the documentary]; that Stewart receive a ‘co-producer’ credit on the programme,” Nevius claimed.
Nevius says he filed the suit to “execute [Fawcett’s] artistic vision and to safeguard her privacy to the extent that she wants it safeguarded”.
Nevius, who produced the 2005 reality series Chasing Farrah, said he and Fawcett had creative control over the film until her illness recently took a turn for the worse.
He said O’Neal threatened to kill him when he declined to turn over control of the project to the producer of his choosing.
Mr Bloch said O’Neal called the allegation “totally false”.
An NBC spokeswoman said Nevius is credited as an executive producer on the film. – (LA Times-Washington Post service)