The dance-off over Leaving Neverland is far far from over. Less than a month after HBO lost an attempt to get the multimillion-dollar lawsuit from the estate of Michael Jackson against the Emmy-winning documentary tossed out, and saw a federal judge shift the whole matter towards arbitration, the AT&T-owned premium cabler kicked back Monday. In a short filing, HBO’s lawyers from Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP and O’Melveny & Myers LLP notified the court that they intend to take the matter upstairs, so to speak.
“Please take notice that Defendant Home Box Office, Inc. hereby appeals to the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit from this Court’s order granting Plaintiffs’ Motion to Compel Arbitration (the “Order”),” Theodore J. Boutrous Jr. and Daniel Petrocelli wrote the court today in a move to dispense of Judge George Wu’s ruling of September 20 against their anti-SLAPP motion in the highly charged case.