Former baseball slugger Lenny Dykstra has filed a lawsuit against CAA, claiming he was stiffed on a failed Amazon docuseries about his life.
Dykstra filed suit Monday in New York Supreme Court, naming agent Evan Dick and the agency as defendants, along with DLP Media Group and producers Gregory Lake and Michael Hughes. According to the suit, Dykstra signed a deal with DLP to do a reality series entitled “Nails” that would have been distributed on Amazon.
Dykstra, a onetime star for the Mets and Phillies, has led a colorful post-baseball existence, launching various business ventures, filing for bankruptcy and serving a stint in prison for fraud. In 2016, he published a memoir, “House of Nails.”
According to the lawsuit, Dykstra was subsequently approached by various TV producers to do a show. In April 2017, he entered an agreement with DLP to develop an unscripted show that would be pitched to Amazon. Within weeks, Dykstra was beginning to feel that he was being stonewalled.
“Obviously, this is not my world, but its very frustrating when my partners (you and Evan Dick) make me feel like everything is top secret,” he wrote in an email that is quoted in the suit. “I don’t believe I am asking too much to be informed of what is going on with the Docu-Series. I was told by both of you that the show was basically sold, and that it was just a matter of getting the details worked out … [t]here has not been a single word from anyone regarding what the structure of the deal you are trying to do with Amazon? What’s the amount of money upfront? Who is in charge?”
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Dykstra was ultimately informed that he would be paid $200,000 for his work on the show. But as months dragged on without definitive word, he grew increasingly frustrated:
“Once again, send me via email a copy of the deal points and the long form agreement that you say Amazon has agreed to,” he wrote in August 2017. “More importantly, when can I expect to get paid?”
About a month later, Dykstra was informed that Amazon decided not to produce the show. Dykstra alleges that the defendants were paid $400,000 in damages over the cancellation, but that he received nothing.
“Defendants cut Plaintiff out of their deal with Amazon and greatly profited from his life story as a result of the failed Nails project,” the suit alleges.
CAA did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
