Re Letterman blackmailer any chance his claim that the ransom demand was "a screenplay" will work?

[astro]

Story here

Any chance this ploy will work?

Shargel’s court filing said Halderman simply realized he had “a valuable subject for a book or a movie” and sold it to Letterman, threatening to do nothing more than sell it elsewhere if the TV host rejected it.

“I have no plans to do anything other than either sell you this option — this screenplay — to you and therefore you own the story. Or if you don’t and you’re not interested, as I’ve said, then that’s fine, and I will proceed, and I will do what I want to do, which is what I’ve been thinking about doing, anyway — which is writing a book,” Halderman told Letterman’s lawyer in one of the taped exchanges, according to the filing.

[Exapno_Mapcase]

No.

[Skammer]

My understanding is that this is how blackmail schemes commonly work in celebrity cases.

“I’ll sell you the rights to this sordid, embarassing story about you for $500k. If you’re not interested, I’ll shop it around to see who is…”

[Marley23]

The answer turned out to be no. Halderman plead guilty this week to a grand larcency charge, admitting he tried to extort $2 million from Letterman. His lawyer is quoted as putting a positive spin on the “novel legal issues” they raised.