Fired CineVegas director sues for breach of contract

Bill Gang

Thursday, Dec. 2, 1999 | 9:35 a.m.

Just days after she was fired as executive director of next week's CineVegas International Film Festival, Michele LeBlanc has filed a District Court lawsuit alleging breach of contract and defamation.

A hearing is expected to be held Monday on LeBlanc's motion to freeze the assets of the fledgling film festival to ensure she can be paid if she wins an arbitration in her dispute with Reel Las Vegas Inc., the company producing the festival.

LeBlanc claims she orchestrated a "world class festival ... with multiple galas, seminars and other events" but much of what she did has been dismantled or reduced.

Yet she contends she is owed tens of thousands of dollars for what she accomplished, including the sale of sponsorships to such entities as the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority, R&R Advertising, Las Vegas Events and Greenspun Media Corp.

In a letter to Reel Las Vegas Inc. on Nov. 19, it was demanded that a settlement with LeBlanc include full payment for the last three months of her contract, 20 tickets to the film festival, $34,000 from a now-canceled "Le Prix Cristal" awards event and a portion of an $18,000 grant from the Nevada State Department of Tourism.

LeBlanc also wanted her name to be left on all festival advertising and publications.

The monetary issues eventually will be decided by an arbitrator and will only see a District Court trial if the arbitration fails.

The Nov. 19 letter from LeBlanc's attorney, Antonia Cowan, to festival lawyer Greg Beber, notes that LeBlanc's firing is the second premature replacement of an executive director in the two years of the festival.

"That does not bespeak a steady professionalism, but rather an out-of-control amateur board trying to function both as a policy setting board and an operating officer," the letter stated.

CineVegas was first held a year ago with 29 films being shown, including the world premier screening of "Star Trek: Insurrection."

The lawsuit says that LeBlanc was told this year's festival should have about 20 films being shown over three days. But she orchestrated the event to have about 100 films and cover six days.

Since her termination, the number of films has been cut back to about 80 that will be shown Dec. 6-11. The screenings will be at Paris Las Vegas and the Gold Coast hotel-casino, with children's films being shown at United Artists-Green Valley.

While the lawsuit describes LeBlanc as "an experienced professional with considerable international credentials and a worldwide reputation in the film community," sources close to the festival have said the preparations for the event were "very disorganized."

The source said there were problems lining up screens for the movies despite the large number of theaters in Las Vegas.

The source also said that LeBlanc took little input from the board and tried to "create the film festival in her image."

The lawsuit alleges that Reel Las Vegas breached its contract with LeBlanc and interferred with her business and contractual relationships with sponsors.

The festival organizers have complained that even after she was terminated, LeBlanc continued to portray herself as the executive director of the festival and collect documents from such places as the governor's office, according to court documents.

While the lawsuit contends that LeBlanc was defamed in statements to event sponsors from board members -- damaging her reputation in the process -- the statements were not specified.

LeBlanc's duties have been assumed by Las Vegas filmmaker Amie Williams, the festival's artistic director.

"We have a wonderful festival, with over 80 films from all over the world," Williams said.

In an interview after her termination, LeBlanc countered that she was the one who attracted most of those films.

The entertainment attorney who came to CineVegas from Paris in June said the problems with the festival were the result of others in the organization failing to line up sufficient movie screens for the available films.

"I couldn't put on the festival because they stopped me from doing it," she said.