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J.Lo feeling arbitrary
From Natalie Finn
Los Angeles—Jennifer Lopez may have recorded an album called This Is
Me…Then, but she’s not interested in what her ex has to say about the
matter. Rather than let the case play out in court, the “Jenny from the
Block” singer is pushing to enter arbitration with her first ex-husband,
Ojani Noa, to stop him from publishing a tell-all book about their
relationship, according to court documents filed Friday in Los Angeles
Superior Court.
Per the filing, Noa is bound to arbitration based on the settlement he
and Lopez arrived at in October 2005 when he sued her for breach of
contract after she fired him in 2002 from a managerial post at her
Pasadena restaurant Madre’s. Their agreement called for, among other
things, Noa to remain mum in public about Lopez’s private life. He also
received $125,000 in the deal.
Noa is currently restrained from peddling his purportedly racy
manuscript by a preliminary injunction that was issued June 30. It
prevents him from profiting from any intimate Lopez details,
disseminating private info about her by any means and criticizing her in
public. And the former waiter is none too happy about it. Despite that
fact that Lopez’s attorney, Paul Sorrell, has stated that his client
could collect $10 million in damages if the book is published, Noa told
the court earlier this month that he’s sorry he didn’t fight harder
against the injunction and would prefer to go to trial.
“I didn’t agree to it,” Noa told L.A. Superior Court Judge Victor Person
on Dec. 1. “My lawyer told me that it was the right thing to do, and I
went along with it.” The 31-year-old is currently without legal
representation after reportedly finding out that his former counsel—who
agreed in October to enter arbitration—wasn’t a licensed attorney.
In an August email to his former missus’ legal camp included in court
documents, Noa wrote that he wouldn’t back down. A hearing is set for
Jan. 29 on Lopez’s motion for arbitration and her request to put her
breach of contract lawsuit against Noa on hold until after the pair have
tried to work things out. Any settlement arrived at during arbitration
would be legally binding. Noa has until the next court date to find a
new attorney. The Monster-in-Law star sued Noa Apr. 10 after he
allegedly asked for $5 million in exchange for not publishing his book,
which, according to the New York Post, was to be titled The Unknown
Truth: A Passionate Portrait of a Serial Thriller. Eleven months later,
their union was kaput. |