Rocker and reality TV star Bret Michaels’ lawsuit against CBS and the producers of the Tony Award telecast will be heard in New York, according to The New York Times. The producers had asked for the matter to be litigated in the Big Apple.
Michaels, the frontman for Poison and a winner of “Celebrity Apprentice,” filed suit after he was hit in the head by a backdrop when he was leaving the stage after performing at the 2009 Tony Awards show. As The Times pointed out, Michaels at the time of the accident downplayed its seriousness, saying that he only got a fractured nose and a couple of stitches on his lip.
But in court papers, Michaels is now blaming that head injury for causing a brain hemorrhage that nearly killed him in April 2010. The lawsuit also claims that CBS shouldn’t have televised the accident, which ended up as a clip that went viral on the Internet.
Last Tuesday U.S. District Court Judge Dolly Gee in Los Angeles ruled that Michaels’ lawsuit should be handled in New York, where the witnesses and evidence in the case are located.
