Which celebs left behind the greediest estates?

It was not the Sinatras who were to blame for "Love And Marriage" getting left off the Married With Children DVDs. It was the publishers of the song. Mill Creek met their price when they rereleased the whole series.

Nobody tops The Beatles for greed and hypocrisy.

Fred Astaire's widow Robyn Smith was notoriously greedy in the years following his death; no clips of Fred could be aired without paying a huge amount of money, the most infamous case being Ginger Rogers' 1992 Kennedy Center honor. Smith demanded money, the producers told her to go fuck herself, and thus no Fred & Ginger footage was shown.

I'm not sure I would say the Beatles are greedy. They don't own the license to their songs -- Sony/ATV owns them -- so they have no control over who uses it and where and for how much.

I would nominate the heirs of Antonio Jobim. He wrote the Girl from Ipanema, and his estate sued the woman who inspired the song when she opened a bathing suit shop called The Girl From Ipanema. I don't know who won the lawsuit.

[quote] I'm not sure I would say the Beatles are greedy.

Can you at least concede that Yoko Ono is a no-talent parasitic fraud who is at least partly responsible for John Lennon's death?

R2 Widow Astaire was saving her husband's image for more worthy causes - like the Dirt Devil commercials.

Sad to say, MLK's sons demand big fees to use footage of his speeches. That's why you see snippets of his speeches.

Houston used to have a bar called the Velvet Elvis. Priscilla Presley wasn't having any of that. The bar had to change the name, and once ubiquitous velvet Elvis paintings seem to have disappeared.

The Zappa estate is a mess.

MLK Memorial Foundation Forced To Change Name By King Children

They spent six years raising more than $100 million, one cocktail fundraiser, and souvenir mug and lapel pin at a time.

And on October 16, 2011, the idea to build a monument in honor of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., an idea that began 28 years earlier at the kitchen table of a member of his fraternity, Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., came to fruition.

Less than two years later, however, the organizing force behind the national monument – the Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Memorial Foundation – is no more after the surviving children of Martin and Coretta Scott King refused to grant a license for the group to continue to use the name “Martin Luther King Jr.”

King’s surviving children – Dexter, Bernice and MLK III – control the copyrights to their father’s images and words through a for-profit entity, King, Inc., which was set up after his death to handle all affairs of his estate.

There have been a number of contentious moments between the MLK foundation and King, Inc., over the last few years. At one point as the memorial was ready to be dedicated, King, Inc. had all of Dr. King’s books removed from the bookstore on the site of the memorial. The King children wanted to control the bookstore and reap all profits from the selling of merchandise.

All of this despite the foundation paying MLK children through King, Inc., $2.7 million to use the likeness of King and his quotes on the memorial on the National Mall.

At the same time, “it’s not as if (King, Inc.) Is using any of this income for charitable good deeds,” Garrow said. “We’ve seen none of that whatsoever. It appears to be simply self-enrichment for a small number of people.”

Audrey Hepburn's sons are two greedy sons of bitches. They sued some charity organization which they founded themselves after Audrey died because the organization "went to far in using their mother's name". Naturally the real reason they sued them was because they didn't receive a big enough percentage of the profits.

They also had a small Audrey Hepburn museum in Switzerland closed down because it was "cheapening the memory of their mother".

Years later they allowed some chocolate company to use a creepy CGI Audrey in their TV ad, because there's nothing cheapening about that. This commercial makes even Fred Astaire dancing with vacuum cleaners seem cute in conparison. You can see those two cunts' names in the bottom of the screen at the beginning of the ad.

Dunno if that's true or not, but I read some old Bob Hope thread on DL recently and someone there wrote that Bob Hope's estate is one of the LEAST greedy ones and that they simply demand you give them credit if you use Hope's appearance in any of your work.

R7, that’s appalling! My ex and I used to go there.

Robyn Smith also doest not allow licensing of footage of Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers together, according to her he stands on his own as a star. The Sinatra estate demand a shit load of money for any use of his recordings or image. The Hepburns are expensive but not nearly as bad as some. The Beatles are expensive as well but not unrealistic about their value, just protective of their product. Their only condition was that however much anyone else made (sony), they had to make more. Mind you this is all within advertising. Frankly the worse have been the comic book properties, particularly Superman - controlling as hell and extremely pricey.

They used a few Sinatra recordings in The Marvelous Mrs Maizel, which surprised me. I wouldnt have thought they would have spent to much money on sync licenses.

RE: the Beatles. I'm the one who said they weren't greedy, their publisher --Sony/ATV - is. I know it's heresy, but I'm not a huge fan of their music. I think they altered the sound of music, but I just don't care for their music. And, yes, Yoko Ono is a narcissistic no talent self centered viper. Her confidence in her "talent" is extraordinary.

After much haggling, Robyn Smith finally allowed Fred & Ginger footage to be used at the Kennedy Center, but only in the show as it was performed live. She did not allow the footage to be used on the television broadcast, which she claimed would bring in huge bucks that she felt she should share in.

Ginger Rogers, a tough cookie herself, was incredibly hurt by the whole thing (especially since most of her best screen dancing stuff was with Astaire), and Robyn Smith came out of it as a newly-minted Hollywood villain, which she has remained to this day.

Did Barbara Marx control Sinatra's estate until she died? I know Frank's kids all hated her.

I though Sinatra's kids liked Barbara Marx?

What about Erin What's-Her-Name, who controlled Groucho Marx in his final years - did she get control of his estate when he died?

Erin Fleming, that was the bitch who tried to control Groucho. She wound up offing herself years later.

Michael Jackson's. They should give Janet the money she deserves.

Erin Moran's estate is notoriously greedy

The estates were right in some of these cases. An example of a greedy estate is the one @R2.

I don't see how anyone but the original studios own the Astaire-Rogers footage.

That’s probably why no knows who Fred Astaire is anymore.

No one under 50 anyway.

Avery Schreiber’s estate is ruthless. They will she you at the drop of a twat.

I've never heard of Robyn Smith but I googled her and found out she was 45 years younger than her husband - yuck!

And I repeat R22's question - how in the world does she get to decide who can and who can't use the footage from his films? Hmm, on second thought, I've heard of similar cases before - I remember how Celeste Holm sued Pedro Almodovar for using a clip of hers from All About Eve in one of his films (even though 20th Century Fox probably okayed it). So do the actors themselves (or their heirs) get a final say if their clips can be used in some film? That would seem a bit strange to me.

“Erin Fleming, that was the bitch who tried to control Groucho.”

Karma, Groucho was a notorious son of a bitch who reacted his wives terribly.

Treated his wives terribly.

I also thought the studios controlled all the images of stars from their films, especially the Classic Hollywood generation.

Well, apparently in most cases you DO have to contact the actors appearing in some clip or image before using it.

Can you imagine what Olivia de Havilland's estate will be like after she passes...

R30 They will demand to be paid each time this GIF is posted on DL:

Audrey Geisel, who just died, extorted the Dr. Seuss state to unbelievable heights and riches churning out schlock at an incredible rate

Audrey Geisel, who just died, extorted the Dr. Seuss estate to new heights and riches turning out schlock of all manner in his name.

Doris Dukes family.

Google it. Nutty, scary story

The Beatles are smart. They say they have no control of the use of their work, but get a big chunk of money. So if their work gets used for something 'tacky' they can saying 'don't blame us', but get to spend the money generated.

Bob Hope's estate sounds realistic. They are probably are happy for the free advertising of Bob's work, because it keeps his name out there, so that there is still the possibility of generating money elsewhere. They also know that if there was a price tag attached to Bob's image, then no one would use his image, and they wouldn't get the free advertising to keep his name out there.

Warhol gave the rights to a charitable foundation. He gave a relative small amount of his estate to family, but the rest goes to keeping his name out there, and also supports the visual arts. That's a great legacy. Though I don't think he would have minded having his name and image attached to anything and everything.

Dorothy Parker left her estate to Martin Luther King, Jr. This somehow was transferred to the NAACP.

The George Gershwin estate heirs are various great nieces and nephews who never met him yet feel entitled to the profits.

There are a couple British grandees worth over a billion. Dukes, Earls, etc. Try keeping those fortunes together nowadays.

I thought it was weird in the credits of Happy Feat it stated that the estate of Marilyn Monroe gave Nicole Kidman permission just to do a impersonation of her.....

Gershwin's greedy estate can thank Sonny Bono, otherwise Rhapsody in Blue would have been in public domain since 1999. They also dodged a bullet this year, when works from 1923 entered public domain (RiB was released in 1924) . Now it's scheduled to enter public domain on December 31th 2019.

Anna Nicole Smith.

Her fight with her 2000 year old rich husbands family, after he died.

Then, after her death, the fight over her kid & money, between those 2 closer queens she was involved with.

^^ Closet, not closer, lol

Forget these nobodies...

NOW who controls Joan & Bette's estates.

Bet it ain't Tina and BD!

Is there anything you queens don't bitch about?

MLK' family even charged to make that ugly as hell statue of him in his honor. Typical.

Bette Davis's estate is controlled by her adoptive son and the personal assistant she had in the last years of her life. I have no idea about Joan's estate.

Not trying to start a fight here, but if I owned/inherited some copyrights and rights to images and names (e.g., Elvis Presley), I would sure as hell enforce my rights.

"The George Gershwin estate heirs are various great nieces and nephews who never met him yet feel entitled to the profits."

They ARE entitled to the profits

We're not discussing whether they're entitled to the profits or not here, because they obviously are. We're discussing approaches different heirs take when managing the estates.

Screw you, Rusty!

I couldn't believe the King children charged for rights to use MLK's quote on a memorial for him. That seemed so absurd.

Why not? MLK didn't leave the family money when he was murdered and he died at age 40. Not much time to amass funds to leave your family. And r47, you can shove your "typical" slur up your prolapsed ass.

It's easy for people who don't create anything, just consume everything, to call these estate managers "cheap" and "greedy."

MORE FOR FREE is the American way in Trump's AmeriKKKa.

r55, most of these estate managers didn't create anything, either. Most lucked out by marrying money or having a famous relative...

Who does Judy Garland's estate? Do Liza, Lorna and Joe get any money from it?

I remember Liza struggled to pay Mama’s bills...

Jimi Hendrix

For a travesty, you have to read about how Maurice Ravel's estate (very large, ($50,000,000) due primarily to the popularity of Bolero) was stolen by a complete stranger, allowing him to live in luxury for decades.

Artists (actors, writers, painters, choreographers, composers, etc) sometimes make more money after their deaths than before, and it seems right that their close LEGAL heirs should at least benefit some from that, since a person should have the right to his/her life production and be able to will it to people or institutions he loves or loved. It seems intuitively wrong that many years after the fact, strangers or people who barely knew the artist should not only control estates, but also greedily demand exorbitant fees and royalties. It's LEGAL, but on a certain level it feels inherently unethical.

Thomas Jefferson, among others, believed that every generation should start afresh. He was all in favor of quite severe estate taxes, so that our nation would not devolve into a plutocracy, where rich families would control us politically and economically. Alas, it has become that anyway. Think about how much control the Koch brothers exert over all of us via the political strings they pull.

I remember when Nike was allowed to use Tye Beatles “Revolution” in their ad campaign. Seemed like a huge deal at the time and one of the first companies to get to do that. Any info on the backstory about that?

If a copyright is for sale and I legally buy it, I don't see what is wrong with protecting my copyright from infringement.

regarding doris duke................she had no family left behind, so not sure why somebody mentioned that. Also who would want to license or use her name? There is the doris duke foundation but it doesnt have anything to do with licensing or profiting off her name. Her foundation is charitable and I believe her estate (mansions) in RI and in Hawaii that are open to the public as museums are separate entitities from the foundation.

You may be referring to the squabbles over how the estate was to be divided right after she died in 1994. That was solved decades ago and the DD foundation has been in operation according to her wishes for decades as far as I know/

I think Natalie Cole had to pay a fortune to her mother Maria for the rights to use Nat "King" Cole's vocals on the "Unforgettable" duet.

Natalie Cole and her mother always had a frosty relationship. Of course, if my daughter had basically turned into a crack whore for many years I wouldn't have been none too pleased with her either.

Hendrix estate, his step sister Janie owns everything and is notoriously greedy.

Apparently Casey Kasem's wife, Jean, secretly moved her husband from his nursing home to a secret location so that his older children (from his first marriage) couldn't have any communication with him before he died in 2014. (She says that a few years before, the three children had tricked him into signing power of attorney for his medical decisions over to them). After finding out where he was, the kids got a court order to come get Casey. When they entered the house, Jean threw meat at them. They took him to a hospital, and not long after, they removed him from life support. As of news report last month, both parties are now suing each other for wrongful death. There was no will, and there are $80 million at stake.

Also recently, when Glenn Campbell passed away, he apparently left a couple of his kids--from one of his multiple earlier marriages, of course--out of his will. The daughter seemed to have had a good relationship with her dad, and didn't understand why she'd been left out of the will. Then, to add insult to injury, apparently, his widow asked them both to sign a document agreeing not to sue for money. (I'm not sure if they signed it or not.)

The marriage of the much younger and very butch Mrs. Astaire and her fey husband has long been rumored to have been a classic Hollywood lavender marriage.

Doris Duke's butler, who completely controlled access to her in her final years, was initially the sole executor of her estate but he was finally paid millions to go away and lived the gay high life until his death. Google "It's time for Doris to die now."

I remember the big legal battles after Doris Duke died. That was a MESS! And then the butler ended up dying not that long after.