Peter Jackson suing for an accounting

I see from CNN that Peter Jackson, director of the Lord of the Rings trilogy and King Kong is suing New Line Cinema to ensure he got everything he is entitled to under his contract. Exec: Peter Jackson will never work for me again. Now, I'm for the American Dream as much as the next guy and fully support enforcement of valid contracts and clarification of improper accountings. What gets at me is the bottom line number involved in this particular fact patter. After your first million or two in the bank for your personal wealth, how much purpose does an accounting really serve? I recognize that this logic falls apart at the lower ends, and in most business cases where shareholders do the same thing, but I also argue that in a personal situation like this one, the facts are entirely differeent.

First, at some point, you're never going to spend this amount of money. Ever. You're not Coke. You're not the DOD or DOJ or any other agency. You're just rich. If Warren Buffett can't spend his billions in his lifetime, see Warren Buffett gives away his fortune, I can't imagine anyone doing the same. Fox should come up with a game show just to see if someone can spend a million dollars in a week (not including real estate purchases or cars or yachts). If you've ever seen the movie Brewster's Millions, you should have some idea of where I'm going with this.

Now, maybe it's a matter of principal on Jackson's part, and that may be another thing all together. But really, why not just let bygones go on this one and just negotiate a much shrewder contract in the future? How much money do you really need to live on to live comfortably? The majority of this country is managing every day on much less and put their pants or skirts on in the morning the same way as the next person. Maybe if I had millions upon millions I would think differently. More likely, however, I would probably be just like the rest of the filthy rich in this country and be quite charitable (tax incentives aside).

Bottom line - after your first $25 million in the bank, I think anyone can safely say they should be living quite comfortably. I'm not sure why Peter Jackson feels differently to the point that he needs to bring suit, but I'm sure his lawyers aren't complaining.

Tags: peter jackson, new line lawsuit