Attorneys for former Mouseketeer Darlene Gillespie were back in court Monday to pursue her claim that the Walt Disney Co. owes millions of dollars to her and her fellow Mouseketeers in unpaid residuals and royalties from the classic 1950s kids TV show, "The Mickey Mouse Club."
Gillespie, sentenced Thursday to serve two years in federal prison in an unrelated case stemming from her conviction for using phony or bounced checks to buy stock investments, had filed suit against Disney and the Screen Actors Guild last year for breach of contract and breach of duty of fair representation.
She claims that Disney and SAG are involved in a "conspiracy" to deprive her and the other former Mouseketeers of their residuals and royalties from the "Mickey Mouse Club" show. SAG began to pursue those claims for unpaid residuals and royalties in 1996, but the dispute has been languishing in the arbitration process ever since.
On Monday, however, U.S. District Court Judge Manuel Real put the arbitration on a fast track when he gave SAG and Disney until May 21 to resolve it.
SAG had moved to stay Gillespie's claims on the grounds that the matter is being arbitrated, but the judge ruled from the bench that it's not being arbitrated fast enough. He told SAG and Disney to wrap it up in two months or he would allow Gillespie to proceed with her lawsuit against them.
"We were very aggressive in filing a direct action against Disney and SAG and not waiting for SAG to pursue the arbitration that it's never completed," Gillespie attorney Arash Homampour said. "They asked the court to extend the deadline until after October 1999, and essentially the judge said that that's way too long‹that it shouldn't take three years for a case to be arbitrated. He said that cases in federal court are resolved in a shorter period of time, and that this case is no exception."
Attorneys for SAG and Disney did not return phone calls Monday.
Gillespie was not in court Monday, though she will not be going to prison until July 26 in connection with her stock-fraud conviction. Her husband, Jerry Fraschilla, pleaded guilty to 21 counts of fraud last year and was sentenced to 18 months in prison and probation.
David Robb/THR