WILL DISNEY ATTEMPT TO DUCK SUIT BY SCREENWRITER?

          Steven Brill, screenwriter for the '92 movie "The
     Mighty Ducks," has filed a "little-noticed" claim, "but one
     with millions of dollars at stake," for five percent of
     Disney's take from Mighty Ducks merchandise, citing language
     in the basic Writers Guild of America (WGA) agreement "that
     Disney and other studios abide by," according to James Bates
     of the L.A. TIMES.  Brill cites language in the WGA
     agreement that says a "writer is entitled to 5% of the
     absolute gross -- defined as money remitted by manufacturers
     of the merchandise -- when a studio exploits an object or
     thing 'first described in literary material written by the
     writer.'"  Disney had no comment on the suit, but the TIMES'
     Bates cites a source close to Disney as saying it believes
     the claim is "unfounded" because what Brill "described in
     his screenplays wasn't Disney's Mighty Ducks of Anaheim pro
     hockey team"  (L.A. TIMES, 4/11).