Teri in lip plumping legal battle - Feb 5 2008
Teri Hatcher has won a ruling in a feud between rival lip plumpers.

A judge ruled that a £1 million lawsuit against the 43-year-old Desperate Housewives star should be moved out of court and into arbitration.

The lawsuit from cosmetics company Hydroderm, filed late last year in Superior Court, claims that a 2005 endorsement agreement with Hatcher's production company stipulated that she would not pitch competing products.

Judge Helen Bendix ruled that both sides are bound by a prior agreement to arbitrate all of Hydroderm's claims rather than litigate them in court.

The two sides signed the agreement on November 30, according to Hatcher's lawyers, who filed the motion to move to arbitration.

According to the lawsuit, the company learned Hatcher was also pushing CityLips, a lip plumper made by City Cosmetics, which competes with Hydroderm's Volumizing Lip Serum.

"Hatcher's name, image and likeness have been linked to so many competitors' products," the lawsuit said, "that it is anyone's guess as to what product keeps her skin and lips youthful".

Hatcher's attorney Alan Wertheimer has called the lawsuit an "unjustified and public assault on Teri Hatcher's good name, reputation and celebrity."

Wertheimer has said that the deal with Hydroderm did not affect Hatcher's previous deal with CityLips.

Teri sued over lip gloss deal - Dec 6 2007
Desperate Housewives star Teri Hatcher is being told to pucker up and pay £1.2 million to a skin care products company that says she pushed the wrong lip gloss.

Filed in Los Angeles Superior Court yesterday (Tuesday), Hydroderm’s lawsuit claims a 2005 agreement with ISBE Productions, Teri’s production company, stipulated that she wouldn’t endorse other competing products as part of the £1.2 million endorsement deal.

According to the suit, last summer the company learned Teri, 42, was also promoting CityLips, a lip plumper made by City Cosmetics which competes with Hydroderm’s lip plumper, Volumizing Lip Serum.

Teri appeared in promotional materials for CityLips, said she was a "fan" of it, credited it with "helping her appear beautiful at an awards event," and gave CityLips gift bags to guests at her birthday party.

The suit also alleges Teri promoted other products, but doesn’t name them.

"Hatcher’s name, image and likeness have been linked to so many competitors’ products (at least 17!) that it is anyone’s guess as to what product keeps her skin and lips youthful," said the lawsuit.

In a statement, Teri attorney Alan Wertheimer called the suit an "unjustified and public assault on Teri Hatcher’s good name, reputation and celebrity in a transparent and pathetic effort to distract from its own failure to live up to its end of the agreement".

Wertheimer said Teri complied with all her contractual obligations despite "a frustrating series of changes in the ownership and management of Hydroderm over the last several years".

Teri will recover "everything she is owed under her contract, as well as compensatory and punitive damages for Hydroderm’s outrageous accusations," said Wertheimer.