Miramax Films Corp sues Allison Pearson

by Suzan Abrams

Miramax Films Corps in New York, has sued Allison Pearson, a London Daily Mail columnist. The author of a funny, captivating novel called I Don't Know How She Does It, published in 2002, is being sued for breach of contract, for failing to deliver a promised fiction manuscript titled I Think I Love You.

The suit filed on Friday in Manhattan federal court alleges that Pearson from Cambridge, England, had accepted US$700,000 five years ago in return for the rights of her unpublished book. She is said to have failed to deliver her novel within a two-year contract and continued to ignore Miramax's requests since 2006, as to the book's whereabouts.

Personal Note:

I first met Allison Pearson in September 2005 when I had attended Vintage Books' celebrations at Foyles in London. She had then read from her comic novel and kept the audience in stitches with stories of family life related to the thousands of letters received from women worldwide. The eager fans had sympathized with her scatterbrained mummy heroine Kate Reddy, in I Don't Know How She Does It. Pearson had remarked that she really enjoyed receiving letters from her fans and treasured them. The writer had also regaled us with funny stories of children, dirty socks, laundry, the untidy kitchen and the noisy schoolyard. She was beautiful, bubbly, voluble with her descriptions and a delight to watch. Good luck, Allison.