Jeff Shell, the president of Paramount Skydance, was sued Monday by a man who claims he is owed $150 million for crisis communications services and for Shell’s refusal to help produce a TV show.
The plaintiff, R.J. Cipriani, alleges in the lawsuit that he had a relationship with Shell for 18 months, in which Cipriani would tip Shell off to forthcoming news articles and offer advice. The suit also alleges that Shell would share non-public information with Cipriani about Paramount’s plans.
Cipriani alleges that he and Shell had an oral agreement that Shell would help produce “Star Serenade,” a TV show, in exchange for the crisis communications services. The suit also quotes alleged confidences that Shell shared with Cipriani, including Shell’s alleged belief that Paramount is overpaying for Warner Bros. Discovery.
“We’re paying way too much for Warner Bros.,” the suit quotes him as saying. “If we could just wait another year, we could get it a whole lot cheaper.”
Paramount Skydance has agreed to buy WBD in a deal valued at $111 billion.
The suit names Shell and his wife, Laura, as defendants. It does not name Paramount, which declined to comment.
When Cipriani first threatened to sue in February, Shell’s attorney at the time, Patricia Glaser, stated that the claims were without merit.
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“We were presented with a draft complaint riddled with clear errors of fact and law and the threat that it would be filed, but if he makes the mistake of going ahead with it, we will strongly respond,” she said.
Shell’s representatives did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
In the suit, Cipriani claims credit for “orchestrating” a June 23, 2025, article in the Hollywood Reporter related to a dispute between Shell and “South Park” creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone. The suit claims that the article “exposed the greediness” of Parker and Stone, who were accusing Shell of interfering in “South Park” streaming rights negotiations with third parties.
According to the complaint, Cipriani informed Shell of his handiwork after the article posted, writing, “I’m the one that put the article out for you!!! … I didn’t want to tell you till it hit so you have plausible deniability!” Shell allegedly responded: “Thank you RJ… I owe you dinner at least!”
The complaint asserts that Cipriani’s intervention in the matter saved Paramount $1.5 billion.
“Despite this staggering benefit, Shell refused to compensate Plaintiff in any amount,” the lawsuit states.
According to the complaint, Cipriani and Shell met on Feb. 2 at a lawyer’s office in an effort to resolve the dispute. Shell stated that he would not pay Cipriani and would not help produce “Star Serenade.”
The suit alleges that Shell expressed his disdain for David Zaslav, CEO of Warner Bros. Discovery, during the meeting, saying that Paramount would not retain him after the merger because they consider him to be incompetent and a “suck-up” who is enamored of Hollywood celebrities.
According to the complaint, Cipriani acted as a “whistleblower,” reporting Shell to the Securities and Exchange Commission for disclosing non-public information to Cipriani. Specifically, Shell allegedly told Cipriani about Paramount’s plans to acquire UFC streaming rights for more than $7 billion nearly a month before the news became public.
The suit alleges that Cipriani has suffered emotional distress and physical sickness “as a direct and proximate result of Defendants’ prolonged campaign of exploitation, broken promises, betrayal of trust, and the conduct described herein.”
Prior to being recruited at Paramount, Shell served as chairman of RedBird Sports & Media since February 2024; RedBird Capital Partners is backing Paramount’s WBD acquisition and was an investor in Skydance Media’s deal for Paramount Global.
Prior to that, Shell was CEO of NBCUniversal. In April 2023, Comcast fired Shell after an internal investigation found that he had engaged in an “inappropriate” relationship with an NBCU employee, who had filed a complaint against Shell for sexual harassment and sex discrimination.
Todd Spangler contributed to this story.
From Variety US