Gail Gygax Sued By Movie Producer

In June it transpired that Gail Gygax, the widow of D&D co-creator Gary Gygax was being sued. This isn't the first time she has been embroiled in legal disputes, there having been major family disputes between her and Gygax's children over recent years, but this is the first time with a Hollywood movie producer!

According to Variety, the Gygax estate partnered with De Santo to oversee the catalogue of published and unpublished works. In June of this year, according to the Courthouse News Service, "Tom DeSanto — producer of “Xmen” and “Transformers” — sued Gail Gygax — the widow of Gary Gygax, creator of “Dungeons & Dragons,” claiming they formed a partnership to exploit the brand, but she tried to negotiate a video game deal without him, in L.A. Superior Court."

That this is ongoing has been confirmed yesterday by a public Facebook post from Gail Gygax, which reiterates that she is being sued in California by Tom DeSanto (X-Men, Transformers) and New Myth Entertainment for $30M over plans to publish Gary's original dungeon. The post is below, verbatim, although it has been edited a few times, as can be seen in the post's edit history, and it's a little incoherent.

"What is on my mind?@

The 30 million lawsuit Tom DeSanto filed against me in CA, the prestigious producer, lol,DELAYS MY HOPE TO PUBLISH Gary's original dungeon. An historical work.
I guess i will be losing our home and Garys dungeon.

I am 62 years old. Can any one say Elder Abuse? Hunter. The thought of losing our home in the next two weeks has me devastated.

No one, except my agent has stepped up to defend me. She was fired from APA. TOM deSanto said to me an agent from APA was up on child molestation and basically said they were a third rate agency. Also that he knows the owner. Wow. Then my fantastic agent gets fired from the agency he, Tom, said was third rate.

My agent is fantastic and I can only say after many years in LA, she is the best.

I almost died in 2014 when Luke and Ernie sued me, and Margaret Weis. Shocking Margaret as Gary was so kind to you.

Weis as a board member. Not sure why She was so negative against me other than to gain financial control over the Gygax trademark..

I believe Tom DeSanto, accordinding to his email wants to strip me of our home and all properties Gary and i were working. On.

I refuse to attend GarybCon as Luke Gygax is so very negative to me. I love our much beloved Gen Con, however due to what i believe are Luke Gygaxes rants with his friends against me i am afraid to attend Gen Con. I would not to put Peter in a bad position. .Peter and Gen Con has only been respectful and loving to me and Alexander.

My home has been invaded, there was a trip wire by my back step to kill me and I know what is missing from our home.

My stepchildren places a headstone without a body. It reads. E Gary Gygax. Beloved Father and Grandfather. So my step childrens hatred of me is front and center. I was his beloved wife. No respect from them. I was shocked and dismayed when Harold Jog son informed me of this act at Gen Con. I was indeed devastated and bed ridden for two months.

With NO CONCERN FROM MY STEP CHILDREN.

I was Told by Chris Hoffner if i didnt licence GaryCon to him they would run over me.

Nice. I created GaryCon in my husbands memory. Guess my stepchildren cant share with me and Alex.

i can only believe TOM DESANTO AND NEW MYTH entertainment with David Ranes has victomized me. Not sure calling the FBI TOMORROW

Tom is suing me for $30mil. I asked my stepchildren to help me. Only to get the answer from Luke if i didnt make him branding manager there would be no agreement with his sibblings. What doess that even mean?. He wants control over my 30+ year company.

So i start a new jouney to make sure my husbands works are brought forward. I am disappointed Hasbro WOTC will not return my emails.

I WANT garys original dungeon i. With HIS original rules. Dungeons and Dragons.

I hope i have support for this historical moment.

Mrs. E. Gary Gygax
I will love him until the day i die. He was a truly special man. I was so honored to be married to him."

 

[Emerikol]

I think it depends - RadioShack got snippy about the term anything on the web with the term <something>Shack for a while, even when it was pretty clear they weren't related. As has been pointed out, a big corporation has a lot more endurance than someone with a domain or business name that doesn't really infringe a trademark. Even if David is in the right, all Goliath needs to do is keep things going to exhaust David's resources so they drop their defense and knuckle under.

I wouldn't think Gygax's widow has an inexhaustible supply of money. And I didn't get into practicalities. I was only speaking of who'd win given full endurance. Who is basically in the legal right.

Obviously the laws of every country are different and I was thinking USA.

 

[AndreasKrauss]

Sorry, but I deleted that post. It was made while I was still learning to use this board.

 

[AndreasKrauss]

My stepchildren places a headstone without a body. It reads. E Gary Gygax. Beloved Father and Grandfather. So my step childrens hatred of me is front and center. I was his beloved wife. No respect from them. I was shocked and dismayed when Harold Jog son informed me of this act at Gen Con. I was indeed devastated and bed ridden for two months. With NO CONCERN FROM MY STEP CHILDREN.

Bohoo. Remind me to shed a tear (or two) sometime.

Can you tell why the heck her VICTIMS, the people whose family she destroyed, should have a jota of "concern" for her? Much less any "respect"?

I mean, if I was part of a family consisting of a father, a mother and several children, and somebody came along and stole my father away from my mother (and myself and the rest of my family, I might add), I certainly wouldn't have the tinniest shred of pity for the creature who whored* my father away from my family, either.

Sorry, but it's a simple truism: You get what you had coming to you. Either in Life, or after your life ended. It's as simple as that.

So I really don't see why everybody seems so sorry for somebody who saw the chance to snatch up a fairly famous man, and went thru with stealing him away.

Even though he already was with wife and children. (And I'm certain that she KNEW he was married and a family father. At the latest, she would have found out before wedding him. Didn't stop her from destroying a family, though, did it?)

P.S. It seems she wasn't very fond of Christians, either: See “Destroy all Monsters”, a very enlightening article, which you can find (after some searching for it) on believermag.com. Which, really, quite fits the image her past history with "Gary" already painted of her, doesn’t it?

So if I would be sorry for anybody, it would be for the Gygax Family (no, I don't count Gail among them, because her "marriage" with Gygax was a counterfeit, a dark sin lived out by running over Gary's marriage with the REAL Mrs. Gygax and Gary's children; a "marriage" no more "real" than stealing somebody's price gem, then running to the next court and getting an “ownership” certificate for the item you stole from the real owner), because they had the incredibly dark misfortune of having such a creature coming into their lives, having her destroying their family, and then, even after the death of their father, that creature STILL insists on attaching herself to the Gygax name, attempting to exploit it and even going so far as to sue Gary’s children over the Gygax name.

As for me, I really can’t wait until she FINALLY gets driven OUT from "her" house, and loses the rest of her ill gains alongside that house.

*"Whoring" is not meant as an insult: Rather, it's a pretty accurate (and yes, brutally blunt) label for the act of cheating either on your spouse or with somebody else's spouse.

 

[AndreasKrauss]

Sorry, this post also originated because my relative inexperience with message boards.

 

[cmad1977]

Bohoo. Remind me to shed a tear (or two) sometime.

Can you tell why the heck her VICTIMS, the people whose family she destroyed, should have a jota of "concern" for her? Much less any "respect"?

I mean, if I was part of a family consisting of a father, a mother and several children, and somebody came along and stole my father away from my mother (and myself and the rest of my family, I might add), I certainly wouldn't have the tinniest shred of pity for the creature who whored* my father away from my family, either.

Sorry, but it's a simple truism: You get what you had coming to you. Either in Life, or after your life ended. It's as simple as that.

So I really don't see how everybody seems so sorry for somebody who saw the chance to snatch up a fairly famous man, and went thru with stealing him away.

Even though he was with wife and children. (And I'm certain that she KNEW he was married and a family father. At the latest, she would have found out before wedding him. Didn't stop her from destroying a family, though, did it?)

P.S. It seems she wasn't very fond of Christians, either: See “Destroy all Monsters”, a very enlightening article, which you can find (after some searching for it) on believermag.com. Which, really, quite fits the image her past history with "Gary" already painted of her, doesn’t it?

So if I would be sorry for anybody, it would be for the Gygax Family (no, I DON'T count Gail among them, because her "marriage" with Gygax was a counterfeit, a dark sin lived out by running Gary's marriage with the REAL Mrs. Gygax and Gary's children over, no more "real" than stealing somebody's price gem, then running to the next court and getting an “ownership” certificate for the item you stole from the real owner), because they had the incredibly dark misfortune of having such a creature coming into their lives, having her destroying their family, and then, even after the death of their father, that creature STILL insists on attaching herself to the Gygax name, attempting g to exploit it and even going so far as to sue Gary’s children over the Gygax name.

As for me, I really can’t wait until she FINALLY gets driven OUT from "her" house, and loses the rest of her ill gains together with that house.

*"Whoring" is NOT meant as an insult: Rather, it's a pretty accurate (and yes, brutally blunt) label for the act of cheating either on your spouse or with somebody else's spouse.

I like how Gary has no responsibility for leaving his ‘beloved’ family.
Classic.

 

[AndreasKrauss]

Gary Gygax' responsibility for leaving his family certainly doesn't lessen Gail's responsibility for snatching him away from his family in any way. Nor does it excuse her perpetual war upon Gary's TRUE family.

And neither does the fact that Gail stole him lessens Gary's responsibility for going with her. He probably did it out of his free will, especially seeing how he stayed with her until the end of his life. Rather than, you know, crawling back to the family he had BETRAYED, and begging them on his knees to take him back.

Yes, Gail and Gary were BOTH guilty. But shared guilt is NOT a guilt halved. It is merely a guilt caused by two, but it it certainly doesn't lessen the guilt of one of them.

 

[Umbran]

*"Whoring" is not meant as an insult: Rather, it's a pretty accurate (and yes, brutally blunt) label for the act of cheating either on your spouse or with somebody else's spouse.

Mod Note:
I am sorry, but no.

First off, the definition of "whoring" is pretty clear. It is not about breaking an agreement with a spouse about fidelity - it is about exchanging money for sex - and it is a degrading term for that action.

Secondly, the suggestion that this word can be used on somebody, and not have it intended as an insult, is not credible.

Moreover, you join the boards yesterday, and your first act in the community is to resurrect a year and a half old thread to deride an old woman over personal relationships from three decades ago?

We expect about 17 times more decorum from our posters on this site. We don't always get it, but we expect much, much better. Please do not continue in this manner. Further disparagement is not acceptable.

If you feel you need to discuss this matter further, please take it to Private Message with any of the moderating staff.

 

[Bacon Bits]

For those looking for closure, the lawsuit was dismissed:

Transformers Producer Tom DeSanto Drops Lawsuit Against Gary Gygax's Widow Gail

Hollywood producer Tom DeSanto has dismissed his $30 million lawsuit against Gail Gygax, the widow of Dungeons & Dragons co-creator Gary Gygax, Kotaku has learned.

kotaku.com

The article makes it sound like it was a voluntary dismissal, but it isn't entirely clear. The article isn't what I'd call well written or complete, but it is the only article I can find that actually bothered to talk to the parties.

 

[Alzrius]

The article makes it sound like it was a voluntary dismissal, but it isn't entirely clear.

To clarify, DeSanto's attorney filed a motion requesting that the case be dismissed (without prejudice) on October 15th of last year. The actual dismissal hasn't happened yet, though I'd be shocked if the judge denied the motion. This can be verified by looking at the case itself (which is a matter of public record), which is Tom DeSanto v. Gail Gygax, California Superior Court for Los Angeles County, SC129465.

 

[JiffyPopTart]

I would think if you opened something that did not look like a McDonald's in any way beyond the name that you'd be in the clear. I haven't even thought about it for decades though so the laws may have changed.

Look up the story of nissan.com

It's why I will not own a Nissan vehicle.