On January 14, 2013, two producers, Beth Grossbard and Barri Rosenblum, sued Disney, ABC, ABC Family and former ABC executive Beth Miller for breach of an implied in-fact contract and breach of confidence. Grossbard and Rosenblum allege the network stole their idea for a Christmas movie.
Grossbard and Rosenblum pitched the idea for a movie called “I Hate Christmas” to ABC Family executives in 2005. Although the network turned down their movie idea, their complaint contends that the executives reworked those same ideas into “The 12 Dates of Christmas,” which aired on ABC Family in December 2011. As a result, the duo filed suit in the Los Angeles Superior Court, seeking unspecified general, compensatory and punitive damages.
According to the complaint, “ ‘The 12 Dates of Christmas’ is nothing more than a hijacking of the idea which was originally pitched by plaintiffs to defendants and the treatment which was given to ABC executives by the plaintiffs, cloned and rewritten in a crude attempt to conceal the brazen theft of the idea.”
Furthermore, Grossbard and Rosenblum contend that there are remarkable similarities between “The 12 Dates of Christmas” and “I Hate Christmas.” These similarities extend well beyond the plotline and into the minute details of the movies, such as the use of “a shpritz of perfume” to transport the heroine to past Christmas days. Grossbard and Rosenblum maintain the position that such similarities “cannot be merely coincidental.”
Lawsuit Claims Disney Stole Christmas Movie Idea
Lawsuit Claims ABC Family Ripped Off Idea for Christmas TV Movie