Harry Potter plagiarism lawsuit which was shut down in both Britain and the U.S. could rise again Down Under as the plaintiffs look into launching a new case in Australia.
The trustee of late writer Adrian Jacobs' estate filed suit against author J.K. Rowling and her U.K. publishers Bloomsbury in Britain, and her American representatives at Scholastic back in 2009, alleging parts of her 2000 novel Harry Potter And The Goblet of Fire were lifted from Jacobs' Willy The Wizard stories.
The American lawsuit was kicked out of court in January (11), while the British case came to an end last week (15Jul11) when the plaintiffs failed to fulfil an order to pay 65 per cent of the court costs up front, amounting to a staggering $2.4 million.
However, the case could be brought back to life Down Under, according to Max Markson, the Australian spokesperson for Jacobs' estate.
Mandrake hears that Rowling has been given a diamond bracelet worth millions of pounds by Barry Meyer, the chief executive of Warner Brothers, which turned her books into highly successful films.
“It is a white gold, antique 40 diamond bracelet,” says an associate of Meyer.
The Hollywood mogul is said to have presented Rowling, who was an impecunious single mother when she wrote her first novel about the child wizard, with the gift at the party after the London premiere of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II. The author is said to have expressed her gratitude but admitted that she was reluctant to wear the bracelet until she had it insured.
Rowling, whose spokesman says “there is no comment on this story”, has talked in the past about her embarrassment of riches. “I’ve got a mental amount that I can’t spend beyond,” she said. “I still have a limit to what I think I would be justified in spending on frivolity.
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