NBC Universal aims to stop 'Runway' runaway

April 07, 2008 Bravo's parent company, NBC Universal, countered by filing a breach-of-contract lawsuit against the Weinstein Co. on Monday aimed at preventing "Runway's" jump to Lifetime. The suit, filed in New York Supreme Court, claims that NBC Uni and the Weinstein Co. have been negotiating for more than a year over exclusive rights to additional seasons of the show, including the sixth, and says that the Weinstein Co. "threatened to take future cycles of the program to a competing television network unless (NBC Uni) agreed to pay many millions of additional dollars to TWC to acquire a 'package' that included television rights to second-tier TWC films unrelated" to "Runway." NBC Uni's filing also claims that after the Weinstein Co. signed the deal with Lifetime on Feb. 7, the company continued to "engage in sham negotiations" with NBC Uni over those rights and "intentionally concealed" that fact that Weinstein had entered into an "invalid agreement" with Lifetime since NBC Uni has right of first refusal on the show.

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