The strange legal saga that torpedoed Jeff Shell’s career at Paramount Skydance has ended with a whimper.
An attorney for Las Vegas gambler and self-styled “fixer” Robert James “R.J.” Cipriani has asked a Los Angeles Superior Court judge to dismiss the scorched-earth lawsuit he brought against Shell in March. Cipriani had been demanding $150 million for allegedly providing “sophisticated, high-value crisis communications services, entirely without compensation” to Shell over 18 months.
Shell’s attorneys separately filed court documents to withdraw a counter-lawsuit against Cipriani.
The bitter feud captivated Hollywood earlier this year after Cipriani went public with his grievances against Shell, whom he met nearly two years ago through powerlawyer Patricia Glaser.
Glaser had arranged a meeting in August 2024 between Cipriani and Shell, the former chief executive of NBCUniversal. At the time, she and Shell suspected Cipriani was behind an online whisper campaign to spread rumors about Shell just as he was trying to mount a comeback at Paramount.
A year earlier, Shell had lost his job as NBCUniversal’s chief executive over an inappropriate relationship with an underling.
Cipriani claimed Shell turned to him for protection against potential bad publicity. In his lawsuit, Cipriani alleged that, during months of on-again, off-again conversations, Shell dished sensitive information to him, including that Paramount was poised to strike a $7.7-billion deal to bring UFC fights to Paramount+.
Cipriani also alleged Shell had reneged on a promise to help him develop a show at Paramount as compensation for his occasional work.
Shell has long maintained that he never made such a promise. He contends Cipriani, a self-professed whistleblower who goes by the handle RobinHood702 (the Las Vegas area code), was trying to shake him down.
“I didn’t pay this guy a cent,” Shell said Thursday. “From the very beginning, I wasn’t going to pay him a cent.”
Earlier this spring, Paramount conducted an external review into Shell’s conduct and found no violation of securities laws.
The nasty spat culminated in April when Shell agreed to resign as president of Paramount Skydance to concentrate on his legal headache.
At the time, Cipriani had widened his lawsuit to include Shell’s wife, Laura, and tech billionaire Larry Ellison, whose son David Ellison runs Paramount. Cipriani named others, including the Ellisons’ investment partner, RedBird Capital Partners. Cipriani’s lawyer subpoenaed entertainment sports executive Ari Emanuel to get testimony to advance the beef.
Shell and Paramount’s lawyers fought back, demanding sanctions be leveled against Cipriani for an alleged overreach.
On Tuesday, Cipriani’s attorney Steven J. Aaronoff filed a request for “a dismissal of the entire action, with prejudice, as to all parties and all causes of action … against all named Defendants, including Jeff Shell, Laura Shell, Paramount Skydance Corp., RedBird Capital Partners LLC, David Ellison and Lawrence J. Ellison.”
Cipriani and Aaronoff were not immediately available for comment.
On Thursday, Glaser declined to comment. The veteran litigator found herself in hot water after her efforts to broker a detente between Cipriani and Shell spectacularly backfired.
The post Legal brawl that helped tank Jeff Shell’s Paramount career ends appeared first on Los Angeles Times.
