Will Snooki Be Next?

As it turns out, sudden fame comes with a heavy price tag: an avalanche of lawsuits from business associates, rivals and other assorted parties who are looking to reach their hands into your pocket to grab a piece of that celebrity money coming your way.

Wealth, particularly well-publicized wealth, does indeed make someone a target for lawsuits, both frivolous and merited. I am not one to speculate on which category this recent onslaught of Jersey Shore lawsuits falls under. Some in the civil legal community would argue that if a case is pursued by the courts and is not dismissed or thrown out of court, then it does, in fact, have some merit. All of these three Jersey Shore related lawsuits have yet to be fully processed by the court system, so we’ll see what the eventual outcomes will be.

Jersey Shore stars, Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino, Paul “DJ Pauly D” DelVecchio and Jenni “JWoWW” Farley have all been targets of lawsuits brought against them by parties from their past, or parties who feel infringed upon by the three stars’ sudden Reality TV fame.

In the case of Jenni JWoWW Farley, ex-boyfriend and ex-manager, Tom Lippolis is reportedly suing the sexy Jersey Shore starlet for more than $700,000 in damages from lost profits that Lippolis feels he is entitled to as her former manager. I personally dealt with Lippolis last year when he coordinated an interview for me with his, now ex, JWoWW, for the website I write for, PR.com. I hate to say it, but at the time of my interview with JWoWW I could feel a palpable tension between Jenni and Tom during the entire back and forth communication between myself and them, both in setting up the interview and in conducting and then editing the piece for PR.com. Throughout my conversation with Jenni she seemed on-edge, closed mouthed and nervous as she answered each of my questions. As it turned out, Tom Lippolis was hovering over Jenni the entire time I was speaking with her, undoubtedly creating a tense and nervewracking atmosphere for her. I couldn’t help but feel sorry for her. Though I don’t know the intimate details of their former relationship. Jenni seemed so careful and concerned about every syllable she uttered to me. I am not surprised that the relationship ended, and a costly breakup it will be when Farley has to pay to defend Lippolis’ lawsuit against her for his complaint of $700,000 in alleged lost earnings that she allegedly “owes” him.

Moving on to Pauly D. Apparantly, there is a well established DJ in the Connecticut area who goes by the name “DJ Pauly” who is suing the Jersey Shore star of the same name for infringement on his longrunning DJ name, and creating consumer confusion since DelVecchio shot to fame in 2009 on MTV’s Jersey Shore. The more obsure DJ Pauly claims that ever since Pauly D Delvecchio hit the Jersey Shore and became one of the most famous DJs on the planet (even landing an exclusive deal as resident DJ with The Palms Hotel in Las Vegas) the lesser known CT based DJ Pauly is nowhere to be found in Google search results and his career has gone into the dumper. The suffering lesser known deejay is suing Jersey Shore‘s Pauly D for a whopping $4 million dollars in damages to his deejaynig career.

Mike “The Situation” Sorrentino is facing his own legal drama with his former management, Gotham NYC Entertainment. According to PopEater, “Sorrentino’s former mangers are suing the reality star for $1 million.” The PopEater article goes on to elaborate that, “Sorrentino breached their contract when he fired them in May for ‘lack of performance.’

“The management company says the Jersey Shore star failed to give them the required 30-day notice to fix any problems before he terminated their services.” Ok, fair enough. That 30 day clause is a standard contractual clause in the entertainment industry. However, would Gotham NYC Entertainment really have lost potential earnings of $1 million in those thirty days. That remains to be seen, legally speaking.

Ah, the woes of fame!