TORONTO — Canadian actor Dean McDermott and his actress wife Tori Spelling are facing accusations their reality show is a rip-off.
A trio of producers filed a lawsuit June 3 in Los Angeles Superior Court against the couple’s Life in a Bowl Productions and four other defendants, claiming Tori & Dean’s sTORIbook Weddings is based on an idea they conceived.
Jake P. Hall, Charles W. Malcolm and Denny O’Neil Jr. are seeking $60 million in damages, alleging breach of implied-in-fact contract, breach of fiduciary duty, slander of title, false advertising and unfair business practices.
The three men claim that in 2007 they registered the idea for a show called Wedding Rescue, “wherein married celebrities (Tori Spelling and Dean McDermott) become wedding planners and officiants for couples who need help with the organization and execution of their dream wedding.”
They allege Larry Goldhar, then manager of McDermott and Spelling, received a treatment for the show in March 2008. “Subsequently, Goldhar indicated via electronic mail correspondence that Dean McDemott was interested.”
U.S. cable channel Oxygen, which is also named as a defendant in the suit, allegedly turned down the pitch in 2009.
The plaintiffs claim sTORIbook Weddings, which debuted in 2011, was “uncannily similar” to their Wedding Rescue concept and “includes nearly every creative element” of the series they proposed.
The series aired in Canada on Slice.
McDermott, who is in Toronto to promote the upcoming Food Network series Chopped Canada, has not commented on the lawsuit. He appears Thursday and Friday on Global’s The Morning Show.
None of the allegations have been proven in court.
McDermott, 46, and Spelling, 40, were married in May 2006 after falling in love on the Ottawa set of the TV movie Mind Over Murder. Both stars were married at the time.
McDermott, who has a son with his first wife Mary Jo Eustace, has had four more children with Spelling.
The Toronto-born actor became a U.S. citizen in 2010.
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