Stagehand sues to stop airing of film by Goldblum

By Joe Mandak, Associated Press

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

A female stagehand wants to stop Jeff Goldblum's movie Pittsburgh from airing on Starz Entertainmment's cable stations or otherwise being distributed until her scene is cut.

Debbie Sue Croyle contends in a federal lawsuit filed Monday that she didn't sign a release to appear in the "mockumentary" and was humiliated because Goldblum used a double entendre in a scene in which she appears.

Croyle, a 30-year veteran stagehand, was working at the Benedum Center in 2004 when Goldblum was appearing in a Pittsburgh Civic Light Opera production of The Music Man.

The 55-year-old actor isn't named as a defendant, although the movie centers on his appearance in the musical and suggests in mock documentary style that he did so against the advice of his agent and friends, who were concerned it would hurt his career.

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Pittsburgh, seeks $4 million damages.

It targets several Southern California production companieso directors Chris Bradley and Kyle La Bracheo and Starz Entertainment LLC, the Douglas County cable channel now airing the movie.

A representative from one production company, ROAR LLC of Beverly Hills, Calif., declined to comment. Calls to other defendants weren't immediately returned Tuesday.

U.S. District Judge David Cercone scheduled a hearing for today on the request to stop distribution of the movie until the lawsuit can be heard.

Croyle contends that theater stagehands and others involved with The Music Man production were asked to sign releases so their images could appear in the movie.

She said she asked producers to cut her scene or donate money to an organization that serves mentally disabled people.

Producers never got back to her about the request, the lawsuit said.

Croyle said she learned she was in the movie only after other people saw it and told her about it. In the scene, Goldblum uses a sexual innuendo while Croyle rubs alcohol on his skin and blows air on it before attempting to tape a microphone to him.