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Celebrity Justice
To Be Blunt -- You Effed Me

Posted Mar 7th 2008 2:48PM by TMZ Staff

The record producer who discovered James Blunt -- the "You're Beautiful" dude -- says she did all the work to make Blunt's multi-platinum "Back to Bedlam" album a huge success -- and Warner Music screwed her.
James Blunt
In court papers filed in New York, Linda Perry -- ex-singer for 4 Non Blondes, 'memba them? -- says she signed the whiner back in 2003, and did "tireless promotion" for "Back to Bedlam," even though Warner Music was lukewarm on it. Then the album exploded, grossing over $100 mil for Warner.

Perry says that's when things got ugly, claiming the big label reworked its deal with Blunt behind her back, and screwed her out of more than $5 mi.

A Warner rep said that Perry "has always been and will continue to be compensated in accordance with the terms of its contractual arrangement with Atlantic."

Tags: James, James Blunt, JamesBlunt, Linda Perry, LindaPerry

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16. I don't get the Blunt mystique..If he was on American Idol he wouldn't even get passed the audition stage..

Posted at 1:29PM on Mar 8th 2008 by the good ole days

17. #10, you are misinterpreting the contract and the law. The contract did not provide that Atlantic could unilaterally reduce Perry's share; rather, it provided that if Atlantic and Blunt renegotiated their contract to increase Blunt’s share of the royalties, in no event would Perry's share be less than 4%. The contract itself is ambiguous, but the clear intent of the parties was that Perry would be involved in any renegotiation. She was not. If the parties intended that Atlantic could unilaterally reduce Perry’s share from 7% to 4%, they would have done so explicitly. Further, Atlantic unilaterally reduced Perry’s share of the royalties due to her BEFORE the contract was in place by simply withholding the funds. Perry certainly has an actionable prima facie case here for breach of contract and conversion.

Posted at 2:44PM on Mar 8th 2008 by DBK

18. Its seems by the lawsuit that Atlantic had a habit of not distributing royalties properly...If Blunt made Atlantic/Warner Bros. so much money, why were they shortchanging the talent that developed him? Is it because they were using Blunt's windfall to prop up the failing company? I guess this will all come out in the upcoming court case...I can't wait!

Posted at 2:55PM on Mar 8th 2008 by dormouse61

19. Boo Hool! Would of been a good idea to get your own attorney. Blunts laughing all the way to the bank.

Posted at 10:09AM on Mar 10th 2008 by Nancy

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