It’s no Secret as lawsuits begin

There’s a war brewing over The Secret, that self-help book and documentary packaged by a former Australian producer, Rhonda Byrne.

A lawsuit filed by Melbourne filmmaker Drew Heriot in the US against Byrne claims he is the co-author of the screenplay and book and is therefore entitled to up to half of and estimated $300 million in revenue.

The Secret, a theory based on the ‘laws of attraction’, reached international success after the documentary became a hit on the internet and was featured on Oprah, Larry King Live and the Ellen DeGeneres Show.

Heriot says he began working at Byrne’s company, Prime Time, as an editor for the television show Australia Behaving Badly in 2000, notes The Age. He said Byrne told him and producer Paul Harrington, in January 2005, about an idea she had for a new television series based on several “self-help” and “success” books and audio CDs she had come across. She wanted to make a documentary-style series using self-help teachers.

Heriot said the three of them decided that the series should be called The Secret. He said Byrne promised him a percentage of the profits from the project. A plan to create seven episodes was scrapped due to funding. But filming began on a two-hour special in Alaska in July 2005 after the Nine Network invested $600,000 in the project.

On the DVD, Byrne was credited as executive producer, Harrington as producer and Heriot as director. In late 2005, Nine decided not to air The Secret (it aired after its US success) but it became a best-seller when released in the US in 2006 and distributed on the internet.

Heriot’s lawsuit claims that following the DVD’s success Byrne set out with Chicago businessman Robert Rainone to defraud him by marketing The Secret as Byrne’s sole creation. All copyright in the film was transferred to Byrne and Rainone’s company, TS Production LLC.

Byrne wrote the book in August 2006, but Heriot claims it was based mainly on the movie screenplay and documents he created.

Byrne, in her lawsuit, claims Heriot was her paid employee and that she created the book.

TS Production has asked the Federal Court to restrain Mr Heriot from making any further claims to copyright on The Secret.

Source: The Age