The Shrink Next Door podcast host sues over profits from the Apple TV+ adaptation

The Washington Post

Former New York Times columnist Joe Nocera created his Wondery podcast in 2019 based on the people next door to his new Hamptons home: therapist Isaac “Ike” Herschkopf and Marty Markowitz, whom Paul Rudd and Will Ferrell respectively played on the Apple TV+ series. "From a distance, it looks like a writer’s dream: a story gets optioned and becomes a hit show, and its author is rewarded with gobs of money and a halo of Hollywood validation," reports The Washington Post's Sarah Ellison. "Yet the story of how Nocera’s story made it onto the screen is almost as tortured and contentious as the relationship between Markowitz and Herschkopf that it portrays. By the time The Shrink Next Door debuted in November, the award-winning journalist had been fired by his most recent employer, Bloomberg News, the media behemoth that helped shepherd his story to podcast fame. On Tuesday, Nocera filed a breach-of-contract lawsuit against Bloomberg, alleging that the company has denied him profits he is due for the TV series. Nocera’s camp is casting him as a creative force done wrong by a major corporation profiting off his hard work." Vivek Jayaram, Nocera’s attorney, says: "Whatever Bloomberg gets from commercializing this story, Joe gets half of it. Creatives can and should be empowered to benefit financially from the work they have created, especially when they’ve entered into agreements confirming that right.” Kerri Chyka, a spokesperson for Bloomberg News responded to the lawsuit by saying: “Mr. Nocera was treated fairly in all of his dealings with Bloomberg. We have honored and will continue to honor all of our contractual obligations with him.”