Legal Threats by Charles Phillips Over THE GLAMOROUS LIE Documentary Thwarted by YaVaughnie Wilkins' Attorneys
Legal Victory Gives Green Light for World Premiere Screening at Harlem International Film Festival on Thursday, September 20, 2012 at Maysles Cinema in New York.
- Los Angeles-Long Beach, CA (1888PressRelease) September 21, 2012 - When former Oracle executive Charles Phillips, now CEO of Infor, got wind that his former girl friend of eight-and-a-half years was going to world premiere THE GLAMOROUS LIE documentary at the coming Harlem International Film Festival in New York, his legal team took aggressive action to prevent the screening scheduled for September 20, 2012 by sending "cease and desist" letters to the Festival and theater threatening legal action should they screen the film.
Wilkins, who garnered international media attention two years ago when she purchased billboards around the country proclaiming their relationship, is Executive Producer of the documentary.
Citing ample case law, which protects the First Amendment rights of documentarians, attorneys for THE GLAMOROUS LIE sought to assure the Festival their right to show the film would be preserved and supported. This assured the Festival to keep the world premiere on the schedule. In addition to the Harlem International Film Festival world premiere, THE GLAMOROUS LIE is also scheduled to screen at DocFest Atlanta September 21 and the Salt Lake City Film Festival on September 23rd. Phillips attorneys have issued similar threats to those festivals.
"I applaud the courage of The Harlem International Film Festival in showing the film regardless of the threat of intimidation, and are glad audiences can see the film for themselves," Wilkins said.
Film fans can see the film here:
• Harlem International Film Festival - September 20, 2012 @ 7PM, Maysles Cinema, 343 Lenox Avenue, (between 127th and 128th Streets), New York, NY, 10027.
THE GLAMOROUS LIE documentary tells a story that would make for a fantastic fictional drama: high-placed boyfriend caught cheating; scorned girlfriend seeks very public acknowledgement. Billboards throughout the country showing a very literal picture of couple, with the message "you are my soul mate forever" posted larger than life over the streets of New York, Atlanta and Silicon Valley. But this was no fictional drama: it was, and it is, real.
The break-up of YaVaughnie Wilkins and Charles E. Phillips, Jr., onetime Oracle Corporation executive and former member of the President's Economic Recovery Advisory Board, played out in newspaper and television outlets around the world, but it was always played out as a story of the wrath of a woman scorned and the height to which she had gone to call out her cheating boyfriend. The story was a media gold mine and fodder for comedians who saw only humor in one woman's heartache. But that was only part of the story.
"I agreed to executive produce The Glamorous Lie because I wanted to tell my story in my own way. Medi interviews alone would not have done my story justice," Wilkins explains. "Immediately after the billboards went up, I began receiving media email inquiries. At first, it was funny. I mean, I was just a private citizen, and despite the fact Charles was a co-president of Oracle, he was extremely private so who would care, right? But, three hours after the first billboard went up in Times Square, a question was posted to Gawker: 'Hey, is that the Charles Phillips that runs Oracle?' All hell broke loose."
And while the documentary has wrapped, the story continues to unfold. Wilkins, family members, friends, business associates and even casual past acquaintances remain victims of ongoing surveillance and intimidation. Alamares absconded with the film's raw footage, which is now in the hands of Phillips and had spawned a pair of legal complaints even BEFORE Phillips' latest legal action. And while Wilkins has moved on with her life, it seems, another chapter of "The Glamorous Lie" may be yet be written. This film will remain a work-in-progress until well after its world premiere screening in Harlem.
About 21 Yellow Tulips
21 Yellow Tulips independently produces feature-length documentary and narrative films and publishes original literary work. 21 Yellow Tulips strives to create and encourage the production of filmed entertainment and literary projects that have important life lessons to share with open-minded audiences. We embark on each project with the purpose of presenting a different perspective than that offered by conventional wisdom.
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