Joey Ramonethe brother of is fighting a lawsuit filed by Johnny RamoneNetflix’s widow over Netflix’s planned film about the pioneering punk band, calling the case “baseless and frivolous” and filing her own countersuit against her.
johnny’s wife Linda Cummings-Ramonsue Joey’s brother Mitchell Hyman (better known as Mickey Lee) in January over allegations that he “secretly” developed an “unauthorized” biopic believed to be Netflix’s announced film starring Pete Davidson like Joey. In the lawsuit, Cummings-Ramone said any “authoritative Ramones story” would require her approval.
But in a sharply worded response filed in March, Lee’s lawyers argued that Cummings-Ramon had actually greenlit such a film years ago — and that her “baseless” lawsuit was just another step in a long-running plan to “install of herself as the Queen of the Ramones.
“Ms. Cummings-Ramone’s primary goal is to embarrass, harass and destroy Mr. Hyman’s integrity, create a completely false narrative about him, rewrite her role in Ramones history, and win a popularity contest in which in her view, she is taking on … the legacy of a group she was never a member of and had nothing to do with the creation,” Lee’s lawyers wrote in the March 15 filing.
A representative for Cummings-Ramone did not immediately return a request for comment Wednesday.
Joey (real name: Jeffrey Ross Hyman) and Johnny (real name: John William Cummings) were not actually brothers and had a notoriously frosty relationship during their decades as bandmates. In the years since their deaths, this feud seems to have continued between Lee and Cummings-Ramon.
As executors of Joey and Johnny’s respective estates, Lee and Cummings-Ramone each own half of Ramones Productions, the holding company that controls the band’s music and other assets. But that partnership has not been smooth sailing, involving numerous lawsuits and arbitrations over the past decade.
The latest legal battle was prompted in part by plans for a film version of the I slept with Joey RamoneLee’s 2009 memoir, which Netflix announced in April 2021. In her January lawsuit, Cummings-Ramone said such a project would need Ramones Productions to sign on, not just Joey’s estate.
“Ms. Ramone objects to Defendants’ attempt to produce a Ramones film without her participation—not to be persistent, but rather based on Defendants’ disregard for [Ramones] assets and their conduct and treatment of Ms. Ramone and her late husband,” Cummings-Ramone’s attorneys wrote at the time. “Allowing the defendants to tell the authoritative story of the Ramones alone would be unfair to the band and its legacy.”
But in his recent response, Lee claimed that the planned film is about him and his brother and “is not intended to be a ‘Ramones movie’ or a Ramones biopic.” And he pointed to a 2006 agreement in which he claimed Cummings-Ramone had already gave his approval for a film based on I slept with Joey Ramone book: “Ms. Cummings-Ramone did consent to defendants developing and producing a film,” Lee’s attorneys wrote.
In a copy of the purported settlement filed in court, Ramones Productions gave approval to a company called Rosegarten Films to produce a film based on the then-unpublished memoir. It is unclear if this particular company is involved in the currently planned film, but a TV and film producer Rory Rosegarten was listed as an executive producer when Netflix announced the 2021 film.
In a statement to billboard on Wednesday, Lee reiterated his argument that the film would not be about the Ramones as a band.
“The fact is that I did not write I Slept With Joey Ramone: A Punk Rock Family Memoir for my brother’s band and I had no intention of doing it,” he said. “I wrote a story about growing up with an older brother who suffered a severe somatic illness at birth and later developed neurological problems. This led to doctors diagnosing that he would never be able to function on his own in society – and this big brother, with the support of his family, proved those doctors wrong as he went on to do great things with his life and became an inspiration to millions.”
The recent lawsuits came as part of Lee’s so-called response to the Cummings-Ramon lawsuit, denying the many allegations leveled against him in it. Along with that, he filed his own counterclaims against her, alleging that Cummings-Ramone actually breached their partnership agreement with a “pattern of egregious behavior.”
The counterclaims set the stage for potentially years of litigation over Cummings-Ramon and Lee’s back-to-back allegations. Just like her original lawsuit, Lee’s new case covers a wide range of alleged wrongdoing in their joint management of the Ramones’ assets far beyond the proposed film.
“She is driven by an alternative agenda, including her own fame and vanity, as well as a selfish desire to obstruct projects and control RPI for reasons that conflict with her fiduciary duties and cause her to avoid any cooperation with Mr. Hyman,” Lee’s lawyers wrote.
