Tyrese Tosses $1M Lawsuit Against Teddy Pendergrass’ Widow Over ‘Derailed’ Biopic
Tyrese Gibson is having a change of heart about his $1 million lawsuit against Teddy Pendergrass’s widow.
The singer/actor’ company Voltron Entertainment recently filed to dismiss the lawsuit they filed against Joan Pendergrass last year over a derailed biopic about Teddy’s life, Radar Online reports. A Notice of Voluntary Dismissal was filed on December 26, which dismissed the case without prejudice.
Now Tyrese will be able to refile the lawsuit at a later date if he decides to. The “Fast and Furious” star initially filed the $1 million lawsuit in September 2023 over the rights to a biopic on the late singer, TMZ revealed.
According to Tyrese, Joan gave him her blessing back in 2011 to release a book and biopic on Teddy’s life in exchange for funding and promotion for the projects. Tyrese agreed and claims that he and his company invested around $450,000 into the project that he’s been trying to push for a decade.
However, in 2022, Tyrese claims Joan changed her mind about giving him exclusive rights to Teddy’s life story. He learned that she was “still promoting and shopping the project within the motion picture industry” while using his name and “excluding him” from the biopic.
The Sweet Lady singer argued she was harming his reputation by “making representations to third parties that Mr. Gibson is attached to star in the Project.”
As a result, the “Sweet Lady” singer claims that Joan caused him to suffer financial harm and damaged his reputation by “making representations to third parties that Mr. Gibson is attached to star in the Project.”
He sued her as an individual and as the executor over Teddy’s estate for how she “irreparably harmed” the biopic, and “significantly harmed Mr. Gibson’s and Voltron’s professional reputations after they staked their names, efforts and money on the Project to promote it in the industry for nearly a decade, only to have it derailed just as it was getting off the ground with Warner Bros.”
Joan fired back and denied any wrongdoing citing Tyrese’s company assigning the rights to Teddy’s life story over to Warner Bros in 2019. She also accused Tyrese of being a “poor businessman” who was “incapable of getting a movie made.”
Teddy’s widow demanded the lawsuit be thrown out, which appears to have gone in her favor.
RELATED CONTENT: Tyrese Is A ‘Poor Businessman,’ According To Joan Pendergrass