NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A New Orleans courtroom will be the setting for a real-life legal drama casting two Hollywood stars in adversarial roles.
Trial is scheduled to open Monday for Stephen Baldwin’s federal lawsuit against fellow actor Kevin Costner over their investments in a device that BP used in trying to clean up the massive Gulf of Mexico oil spill.
The lawsuit claims Costner and a business partner duped Baldwin and a friend out of their shares of an $18 million deal for BP to buy oil-separating centrifuges after the April 2010 spill.
Baldwin and his friend, Spyridon Contogouris, said they didn’t know about the deal when they agreed to sell their shares of Ocean Therapy Solutions, a company that marketed the centrifuges to BP, for $1.4 million and $500,000, respectively.