Tyrese Gibson has had a change of heart about his $1 million lawsuit against Teddy Pendergrass’s widow.
The singer/actor’s company, Voltron Entertainment, recently filed to dismiss the lawsuit it filed against Joan Pendergrass last year over a derailed biopic about Teddy’s life, Radar Online reports. A Notice of Voluntary Dismissal was filed on Dec. 26, which dismissed the case without prejudice.
Tyrese can refile the lawsuit later if he wants.
The Fast and Furious star initially filed the $1 million lawsuit in September 2023 over the rights to a biopic on the late singer, TMZ
revealed.According to Tyrese, Joan Pendergrass gave him her blessing in 2011 to release a book and biopic on her husband’s life in exchange for funding and promotion for the projects. Tyrese agreed and claimed that he and his company invested around $450,000 into the project that he’s been trying to push for a decade.
However, in 2022, Tyrese claimed Jo
an Pendergrass changed her mind about giving him exclusive rights to Teddy Pendergrass’ life story. He learned she was “still promoting and shopping the project within the motion picture industry” while using his name and “excluding him” from the biopic.The “Sweet Lady” singer argued she was harming his reputation by “making representations to third parties that Mr. Gibson is attached to star in the Project.”
He sued her as an individual and as the executor over Teddy Pendergrass’ estate for how she “irreparably harmed” the biopic and “significantly harmed Mr. Gibson’s and Voltron’s professional reputations after they staked their names, efforts, and money on the Project to promote it in the industry for nearly a decade, only to have it derailed just as it was getting off the ground with Warner Bros.”
Joan Pendergrass denied any wrongdoing, citing Tyrese’s company assigning Teddy’s life story rights to Warner Bros in 2019. She also accused Tyrese of being a “poor businessman” who was “incapable of getting a movie made.”
She also demanded that the lawsuit be thrown out.
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