Jared Leto fans

Virgin Records sues Jared Leto's band for $30M

7 hours ago

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hardcore fans of 30 Seconds to Mars aren't the only ones who want more of the band's music. Virgin Records has sued the group for $30 million, saying it has failed to deliver.

Virgin Records sued the band and front man Jared Leto in Los Angeles on Friday, claiming they refused to deliver three albums as required by its contract.

The band's last album, "A Beautiful Lie," was released in 2005.

A publicist for Leto, an actor who starred in the film "Requiem for a Dream" and the TV show "My So-Called Life," did not return a message Friday.

According to the lawsuit, the band "repudiated" a 1999 contract in July.

Despite the absence of a new album, the band's hit "From Yesterday" was deemed one of 2007's Top 10 "Hot Modern Rock Songs" by Billboard magazine.

from associated press

 

In the breach of contract lawsuit, filed today in L.A. County Superior Court, Virgin Records alleges Shannon and Jared Leto violated their recording contract by not putting out the agreed number of albums. The suit says the Leto Bros. agreed in 1999 to cut five records for the label, but on July 4 of this year, they say the Leto boys quit -- three albums short. Virgin is suing for "in excess" of $30 million.

A rep for the band cries foul, telling us that even though the band has been signed for nine years and have sold more than two million records -- and lived through five regime changes at the label -- they still haven't been paid. Paging TLC!

from TMZ

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Label Done Waiting for Jared Leto's 30 Seconds
Today 5:15 PM PDT by Natalie Finn


Chris Weeks / Getty Images It's 30 Seconds to Mars. And about half that to file a lawsuit.

Jared Leto and his bandmate brother, Shannon, were sued Friday by Virgin Records America for failing to come through on a five-album deal the eyelinered duo and the now-defunct indie label, Immortal Records, inked with the plaintiff nine years ago.

While Leto used a couple of those years to appear in movies like Girl, Interrupted and American Psycho, his band eventually got the ball rolling with its 2002 self-titled debut.

The alt-rockers followed that up with 2005's A Beautiful Lie.

But since their sophomore effort, according to the lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, 30 Seconds to Mars has remained three albums short of the promised land.

Virgin and parent company Capitol Music Group claim that the Letos opted out of their 1999 contract in July by citing a section of the California Labor Code which states that a contract cannot be enforced against an employee beyond seven years "from the commencement of service under it."

In order to invoke the loophole, employees involved in "the production of phonorecords" must also give written notice that it won't be providing its services in the future.

And 30 Seconds to Mars may very well have laid it all out in writing, but the labor code also states that, in such a case, an employer is entitled to recover damages for breach of contract, which is exactly what Virgin and Capitol are looking to do, to the tune of more than $30 million.

A rep for the band tells TMZ, however, that it's 30 Seconds to Mars that is getting the short end of the stick—the trio, which also includes Tomo Milicevic, has sold more than 2 million albums and has not been paid accordingly.

Meanwhile, though the guys haven't been putting out any new music lately, they sure are stretching their A Beautiful Lie success as far as it will go.

They issued a deluxe edition of the album in 2006 and rereleased it again last year with a different set of bonus material, hoping to capitalize on the good will picked up on a European club tour. A short-film music video for the album's title track premiered in January on the band's MySpace site as well.