The idea of Michael Douglas playing Liberace might seem nearly as outrageous as Liberace himself. Liberace, forever hailed as Mr.LOS ANGELES – A judge tentatively denied a CBS bid to halt “The Glass House,” an ABC network reality television show set to premiere Monday, while the networks fight over whether it’s a copy of CBS’s “Big Brother.”
U.S. District Judge Gary Feess in Los Angeles said Friday that he wasn’t convinced that CBS would prevail in its copyright suit. The harm to ABC and the people working on “Glass House” caused by blocking the show would outweigh the harm to CBS from allowing it to air, he said.
“The closer you get to non-fiction, the more difficult a copyrights case gets,” the judge said.
Feess didn’t issue a final decision in making an oral ruling. He said he’s unlikely to change his mind in writing a decision later.
Two former supervising producers and a former co-executive producer of “Big Brother” plus 16 other ex-producers and series staff are working on “Glass House” and have disclosed CBS trade secrets and confidential information in violation of non-disclosure agreements, CBS said in a lawsuit filed last month.
