Jury Rules for Sopranos Creator

TRENTON, December 20: A federal jury has ruled in favor of The
Sopranos creator David Chase in a lawsuit
brought by an aspiring writer who was seeking compensation for helping to craft
an early draft of the pilot of the acclaimed HBO mob drama.

The suit was brought by former prosecutor Robert Baer, who
was seeking payment for assisting Chase in 1995, including setting up meetings
with New Jersey-based police officers and prosecutors. “I helped him to create
it. I was feeding him information, bringing him to people,” Baer is quoted as
saying in an AP report. Chase maintains that at the time, Baer declined
payment. The early draft of the show was rejected by FOX and Chase subsequently
found another advisor.

According to the AP, Chase said he was “not worried” about
losing the suit. "Unfortunately, America loves success. When it happens,
some people seem to resent it. In show business, there are way too many cases
like this. I tried to help him out with his writing, but it didn’t work."

—By Mansha Daswani