Teen soprano CHARLOTTE CHURCH has been spared the ordeal of giving evidence against her former manager in the High Court witness box today (November 22).
After a morning of out of court talks both sides said the case brought
against Charlotte and her parents by sacked manager, Jonathan Shalit, had been
settled.
Officially the case has been adjourned until tomorrow afternoon (November 23). But friends of the parties were talking in terms of a settlement figure for
Mr Shalit of around #2 million, though no official figure has been put on
the deal lawyers are now working on.
Today’s dramatic end to the case came after evidence yesterday (November 21) during which
Charlotte’s parents were branded as “callous” in their treatment of Mr
Shalit.
Mr Shalit had been scheduled to give his evidence in the case this morning.
It is believed that the settlement was the result of pressure to avoid the
unwelcome publicity such evidence would attract, in a week that Charlotte
has released her third album, ‘Dream A Dream’.
Mr Shalit had been claiming 20 per cent of Charlotte’s earnings up to 2002,
when the contract should have ended, and a cut of any future royalties from
recordings made before that date.
Though hard to quantify, the claim had been widely reported to be in the region of #5 million if Charlotte continues her phenomenal
success, which has already earned her a reported #10 million fortune, and has
seen her perform before the Pope, President Clinton and the Prince of Wales.