Ashton Kutcher Is Suing the DMV. Sometimes You Have to Root for No One.
Ashton Kutcher's production company filed a lawsuit Tuesday against the California Department of Motor Vehicles for breach of contract.
The company operates under the Kardashian-friendly name of "Katalyst Media Inc."
It describes itself as "an award-winning studio on the cutting edge of creating television, film, and internet content."
It produced The Butterfly Effect.
According to the kompany's komplaint, a copy of which was obtained by The Hollywood Reporter, in 2011 Katalyst Media signed a deal with the DMV to create a docu-series:
"designed to capture the variously humorous, emotional, dramatic, moving, humanizing and entertaining situations that arise on a daily basis at DMV's more than 170 offices across the state of California."
In other words: Ashton Kutcher wanted to take one of the most inefficiently-run government agencies in the country and cause it to run even more inefficiently by adding a reality TV production crew into the mix.
Fortunately and unfortunately, just six weeks after signing on to the project, the DMV—a noted pillar of helpful, reliable service—reneged on the deal, explaining via letter to Katalyst producer Jason Goldberg that it was no longer in the agency's "best interests" to participate.
By that time, Katalyst Media had already secured a four-episode deal with the TruTV channel (where, once picked up, the show might have languished in obscurity for a season or two).
Now the company claims it's owed over $1.4 million by the DMV.
Does not feel great to get Punk'd.
