Another writer has filed a lawsuit claiming he pitched the original script for what ultimately became the hit Disney Channel series starring Miley Cyrus about a so-called average teen who moonlights as a pop star.
After the complaint filed Wednesday in Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by TMZ.com, Richard Fronduto maintains he penned a script in 1990 titled The Secret Life of Sindi (never mind that that sounds like porn), which later was retitled Family Business.
His agent pitched the idea—which also featured a single dad who acts as his kid’s manager—to Disney, Fronduto says, which in turn liked it so much that the network requested a draft for a two-hour pilot.
Sometime later, according to his lawsuit, his brainchild birthed Hannah Montana.
Fronduto is seeking unspecified damages, as well as a “created by” credit on all future episodes of the hit cable series, now in the middle of its third season.
Disney has not yet responded to the suit, but ABC Cable Networks denied any wrongdoing when comedy writer Buddy Sheffield sued in 2007, claiming he pitched the Hannah premise in 2001.
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