Charlie Sheen and NFL Star's Lawsuit over Tweets

Pittsburgh Steelers running back Rashard Mendenhall is challenging the strength of "morals clauses" in celebrity endorsement deals.

The lawsuit, the Pittsburgh Steelers star's lawyers presented at the time, involved the question of whether a "celebrity endorser loses the right to express opinions simply because the company whose products he endorses might disagree with some (but not all) of these opinions."

At trial, his lawyers are preparing to put Charlie Sheen front and center..
Why Sheen?
The actor also was a Hanesbrands endorser until recently and, like Mendenhall, has never been shy about voicing strong opinions. The running back has seized upon a comment Sheen made during a radio interview about the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks at the World Trade Center: "It seems to me like 19 amateurs with box cutters taking over four commercial airliners and hitting 75 percent of their targets feels like a conspiracy theory," said Sheen. "It raises a lot of questions."

To prevail in his lawsuit, Mendenhall will have to show that Hanesbrands went outside of the rights it enjoyed in the "morals clause" of the endorsement deal.

Morals clauses are common in Hollywood. Almost all studios that contract with actors, musicians and other entertainers have some protection that allows termination upon controversy. Mendenhall's contract with Hanesbrands has a typical morals clause that prohibits activities that would bring the company "into public disrepute, contempt, scandal or ridicule."
However, the language is quite broad and doesn't specify what Mendenhall could or couldn't say on Twitter.

Among the celebrities that Hanesbrands has paid to endorse its clothing over the years are Michael Jordan, Kevin Bacon, Christina Applegate, Jennifer Love Hewitt, Matthew Perry and Damon Wayans.

The plaintiff goes on to say that "information obtained in discovery has revealed that HBI employees recognized the similarities between the public's response to Mr. Sheen's comments and those made by Mr. Mendenhall. Therefore, requests aimed at HBI's treatment of other endorsers such as Mr. Sheen are reasonable calculated to the discovery of admissible evidence."

In short, the lawsuit now is testing not only how far celebrities can go in making comments on Twitter without reprisal from their sponsors but also whether companies risk watering down morals-clause enforcement with discriminatory treatment from one celebrity to the next.

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