All Charlie's Angels film rights remain solely with Columbia Pictures. California courts decided this today putting a close to Robert Wagner's lawsuit against Columbia Pictures. Robert Wagner and his late wife Natalie Wood -- whom I still adore with all sincerity -- collaborated with the now late Aaron Spelling and Leonard Goldberg to create the hit television series Charlie's Angels. I learn something new everyday. I had no idea that tragically destined Wood and her husband Wagner had any part in Charlie's Angels' conception, let alone development.

Robert Wagner was fighting for compensation from Columbia Studios for all revenues the film accumulated. During the Angels' television days, Wood and Wagner received 50% of all profits that Spelling-Goldberg Productions made. Now here's the tricky part: Spelling-Goldberg Productions sold all of their rights to Charlie Angel's to Sony Pictures Television years back. Whether Wagner was a part of this decision I'm not sure, and whether Wagner received any of the money that Spelling-Goldberg Productions sold it for is another gray area. Either way, due to the court's decision it leads one to believe that at the point of sale, Wagner was freed of any rights or obligations to Charlie's Angels. If that's the case, then it makes sense that Wagner would not receive any money from the success of the films, leaving him no reason to go after Columbia Pictures in the first place.

Here lies the conundrum. Why do people sell the rights to their work in the first place?! There must be something that I don't get. The biggest example of unreasonable sales is The Beatles selling the rights to their music to Michael Jackson. Yes, Charlie's Angels isn't The Beatles but if it's your work, your baby, then no amount of money should replace your artistic marriage to your creation. Therefore, don't sell your work unless you are certain you want nothing to do with it if someone resurrects it into another profitable success.

Apparently there was a TV series in the late 1960s called It Takes a Thief. It ran for three seasons, starred Robert Wagner (whoa - and Fred Astaire!) and, quite frankly, sounds fantastic. In the series, Wagner played "the world's greatest cat burglar" who, after his arrest, struck a deal with government: he was pardoned, but had to steal whatever they (in the form of the SIA, a made-up-for-the-show government agency; in the movie it'll be the CIA) asked him to steal. So basically, all charges were dropped, and he got to travel the world, doing what he loved. That's punishment? We should all be so lucky.

Universal, also, digs the concept and, after a decade of hemming and hawing and almost casting Michael Douglas, they've hired Will Smith to star in their movie version. (Wow, that was a near thing - Michael Douglas doing anything remotely cool is less and less convincing. Plus, I still get a kick out of race-blind casting. So sue me.) The script is currently being revamped by David Elliot and Paul Lovett, who reportedly have the "fresh take" that has finally brought the movie to the forefront of Universal's schedule. Hopefully that take involves a sense of humor and lightness, as opposed to a need to turn the series into another all action, all the time Smith flick.