RODNEY Dangerfield’s widow and his daughter have settled an ugly legal dispute over the comedian’s legacy.
The existence of a feud between the two most important women in Dangerfield’s life was pretty much unknown until this past weekend when Joan Dangerfield’s lawyer announced her lawsuit against the daughter, Melanie Roy-Friedman, had been resolved.
Joan Dangerfield filed a lawsuit in federal court in Los Angeles two years ago, accusing Roy-Friedman of videotaping the comedian’s one-hour Vegas act and selling it to the cable channel Comedy Central.
When he died in 2004 at age 82, Dangerfield left all his copyrights to his widow.
Since then, Joan Dangerfield has been busy in court suing his friends, family and ex-business associates over a variety of financial grievances.
Last fall, she filed a lawsuit to prevent a former friend, David Permut, from using personal, at-home video footage of the late Hollywood comedian in a documentary film about Dangerfield set to debut at the Sundance Film Festival.
And in 2006, she filed suit in New York federal court claiming she is owed money from the Eastside Manhattan comedy club that was named for Dangerfield.
Roy-Friedman tried to sell the one-hour stand-up act to HBO shortly after he died, according to court papers.
But the deal fell through and instead she agreed to let Comedy Central use the footage for a September 2000 special.