Don’t bogart that joint agreement, my friend.
Weed-friendly comedian Doug Benson is suing his partners on the documentary “Super High Me,” claiming that they harshed his mellow by attempting to make a follow-up to the film against his will.
In his suit, filed in federal court in California, the former host of Comedy Central’s “The Benson Interruption” claims that he formed Four Twenty Partners with DJ Paul, Alex Campbell and another partner to produce the documentary “Super High Me,” which “sought to document the effects of cannabis on Benson by following him through 30 straight days of cannabis-free living, immediately followed by 30 straight days of non-stop use.”
The documentary was released in 2008, but the problems began in 2014, when Campbell and Paul planned to release a new documentary, “Super High Me Redux,” consisting of unused footage from the original film.
Benson claims that it was “repeatedly made clear … that the Redux would be made with or without Benson’s cooperation.”
According to the suit, Benson — named 2006 Stoner of the Year by High Times magazine — objected to the footage being used “as he fears it would injure his reputation, alienate and upset his fans, and potentially cause irreparable harm to his carefully cultivated career.”
Benson says that he initiated arbitration on the matter, but Paul and Campbell objected and, in August, Benson discovered that the pair had “purported to assign the copyright in all of the intellectual property the Company owned to defendant Vigorish Productions LLC” — this, despite Benson’s claim that Paul and Campbell’s companies had dissolved Four Twenty in 2011. Benson claims that Paul and Campbell had neither the right to dissolve the company without his consent, or to assign the property after the company had been dissolved,
Claiming copyright infringement, breach of fiduciary duty, conversion and other counts, Benson is seeking unspecified damages. He’s also seeking an injunction preventing Paul, Campbell and Vigorish from using the company’s copyrighted material.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
