LOS ANGELES — A celebrity branding company on Wednesday sued Ayesha Curry, the food and lifestyle personality and wife of NBA star Stephen Curry, seeking more than $10 million for breach of contract.
Flutie Entertainment said in a lawsuit filed in Los Angeles Superior Court that the five years it spent with Ayesha Curry brought “significant and unprecedented results.” Those include helping Curry land a Food Network show and a hosting role on ABC’s “Great American Baking Show,” as well as producing a bestselling cookbook and launching several successful food-based businesses.
But the suit alleges that in the 11 months since terminating the relationship she has denied the company its share of proceeds from the businesses, deliberately slowed down new enterprises, took away a top employee and “essentially gutted and devalued Flutie Entertainment’s interests.”
Curry attorney Michael Plonsker says the suit’s claims are baseless.
“Ayesha Curry terminated her business relationship with disgruntled manager Robert Flutie in early 2019,” Plonsker said in a statement. “We are confident that the legal process will find his accusations nonsensical and completely unfounded.”
Flutie Entertainment’s suit says Curry had a modest following for her social media and food blog and was known primarily as the wife of the star of the NBA champion Golden State Warriors when it began working with her. The Florida-based company, founded by Robert A. Flutie, was “clearly and undeniably instrumental in helping her achieve success.”
The suit asserts that when Curry cut off the relationship, Flutie had done major work with her developing partnerships, sponsors and legal and financial framework for Homemade, in which Curry would offer home meal kits along with other kitchen and lifestyle products, and Yardie Girl, an entertainment production company. The lawsuit alleges Curry and her co-defendants have stalled on moving forward with the projects to deny Flutie its share in them.
The suit also names as defendants six Curry-affiliated companies and a former Flutie employee who handled Curry’s business for the company but now works directly with Curry.
It seeks damages of at least $10 million and a ruling that guarantees Flutie’s stake in Homemade and Yardie Girl.
Curry, a 31-year-old native of Canada, was an actress when she married Stephen Curry in 2011, and began doing cooking demonstrations on YouTube in 2014. The couple has three kids.
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Follow AP Entertainment Writer Andrew Dalton on Twitter: https://twitter.com/andyjamesdalton.
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