Timothy Hutton sues for breach of contract after he was dropped from Leverage: Redemption

Variety

The Oscar-winning actor says he was preparing to reprise his Leverage role in March 2020 when Buzzfeed News reported that a woman went to the Vancouver Police Department, alleging that Hutton had raped her when she was 14 in 1983. Hutton denied the allegation and alleged that the accuser was trying to extort him. Prosecutors later decided not to press charges. But in wake of the report, Leverage producer Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment dropped Hutton from Leverage: Redemption, IMDb TV's spinoff of Leverage, weeks after Buzzfeed's report with Noah Wyle tapped to lead the spinoff instead. According to Variety, "the suit alleges that Electric did nothing to investigate the allegation and ignored evidence that Hutton’s representatives presented that challenged the claim. The suit also alleges that Electric has violated the pay-or-play provision of Hutton’s agreement and still owes him at least $3 million." Hutton was replaced by Noah Wyle on Leverage: Redemption. Dean Devlin’s Electric Entertainment has yet to respond to the lawsuit.

• UPDATE: Electric Entertainment responded to the lawsuit, saying Timothy Hutton failed to disclose the allegations: “We take allegations of sexual assault very seriously, especially when children are involved. Despite dealing with these allegations for years, Mr. Hutton failed to disclose them to us before or during negotiations for him to reprise his role in Leverage: Redemption. Consequently, once we learned of the allegations in the press, we ceased negotiations with him and chose to move on without him. His baseless allegations against us are without merit and we intend to vigorously defend ourselves.”
• Hutton's attorney, Dale Kinsella, responds to Electric Entertainment's statement: “This was a flagrant and pretextual breach of an agreement that had been done for weeks before Electric Entertainment decided there was no deal. Worse, Electric made this decision without any investigation whatsoever. While nobody relishes the prospect of litigation, this course of action is a last resort to hold Electric Entertainment to its obligations. We look forward to presenting our claims to a jury and are confident it will reject Electric’s purported reliance on unsubstantiated and frivolous charges.”