(EXCLUSIVE) The Rock & Mark Wahlberg Want Legal Bills Paid In $200 Million Ballers Lawsuit

The Rock, Mark Wahlberg

theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively reports, The Rock and Mark Wahlberg have returned to court in the $200 million dollar lawsuit they won earlier this year – which accused the duo of stealing two women’s story and turning it into their hit show “Ballers” – with the actors now demanding the plaintiffs be ordered to pay $120k of their legal bills for having to defend themselves in the case.

Here’s the latest: On August 9th, the actors returned to court demanding the plaintiffs be ordered to pay their legal bills for having to defend themselves in the case, to the tune of $120,000. They explain the $120k is not even the full amount they spent defending themselves in the suit. The Rock & Mark explain they are only seeking a portion of their bill to be paid by the two women.

They believe the plaintiffs should be ordered to pay a fair share of some of their legal expenses. Due to the judge siding with them and finding no similarities between the two works, they say the women are on the hook for their legal bill since they won. The judge has yet to make a decision on their motion for the $120k for their defense costs.

Here’s the backstory: Everette Silas and Sherri Littleton filed a $200 million dollar Federal lawsuit against HBO, The Rock and Wahlberg, accusing them of ripping off their 2007 project entitled “Off Season” for “Ballers”.

The plaintiffs explained they were close to a deal with Wahlberg and The Rock back in 2009, until they insisted their names be shown as “created by” during the credits and the deal fell through.

The women accused the actors of stealing their idea, which they said was evident due to the similarities in the two shows — including both are about football players and their life off-field, both are set in Miami and both center around African-American athletes. They filed suit demanding $200 million in damages for their idea allegedly being ripped off.

The Rock & Mark Wahlberg responded to the lawsuit, demanding it be thrown out of court and the women awarded nothing from their complaint. They explained there is no substantial similarities between the two works and are actually radically different.

Everything from the theme, dialogue, mood, setting, pace, characters and events have no similarity. They say the women’s story is a dark drama primarily set in a nightclub and touches on pornography, violence, dirty police officers, etc.

“Ballers” is a sun-drenched comedy about the careers, financial struggles and relationships of current and former football players. Mark, The Rock and HBO demanded the entire lawsuit dismissed.

Then in July, the Federal Court judge came back with his decision and sided with the actors by dismissing the entire case.

The order explained that “the themes in the two concepts are widely different” and that the similarities between the two series aren’t protect-able by copyright law. The judge dismissed all claims against The Rock and Mark and the case was closed.

Follow us: @theJasmineBRAND on Twitter | theJasmineBRAND on Facebook| theJasmineBRAND_ on Instagram