88.5 WFDD - Nicholas Sparks: Recent Episodes
Associated Press
FILE - In this Feb. 1, 2016, file photo, novelist Nicholas Sparks attends a special screening in Los Angeles. The trial is getting underway, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2019, in a lawsuit that accuses Sparks of defaming the former headmaster of a private Christian school he founded in North Carolina. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP, File)
The trial is getting underway in a lawsuit that accuses novelist Nicholas Sparks of defaming the former headmaster of a private Christian school he founded in North Carolina.
Saul Hillel Benjamin accuses Sparks of telling Epiphany School parents, a job recruiter and others that Benjamin suffered from mental illness.
The jury in the trial beginning Wednesday in Raleigh will decide whether the private K-12 school in Spark's hometown of New Bern, the author and the foundation Sparks created to support the school should pay damages.
Benjamin's lawsuit alleges that the author of "Message in a Bottle" and "The Notebook" defamed him and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
Benjamin was in the headmaster's position for less than five months and says he was forced out.
Story is all AP content
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Nicholas Sparks attends a special screening of "The Choice" held at ArcLight Hollywood on Monday, Feb. 1, 2016, in Los Angeles. (Photo by Richard Shotwell/Invision/AP)
The former headmaster of a private Christian school founded by novelist Nicholas Sparks can continue to sue the school, the author and the foundation Sparks created to support the school, a federal judge said.
U.S. District Judge James Dever III ruled last month that a jury should decide whether the author of "Message in a Bottle" and "The Notebook" defamed Saul Hillel Benjamin and violated the Americans with Disabilities Act. Sparks was described as telling parents, a job recruiter and others that the former Epiphany School of Global Studies headmaster suffered from mental health problems, the judge said. Benjamin was in the position for less than five months and said he was forced out.
"Sparks' statements are directly related to Epiphany's decision to allegedly terminate Benjamin's employment," Dever wrote in his ruling. "The cited testimony constitutes direct evidence of disability discrimination by a decision-maker on the basis of Benjamin's perceived mental impairment."
Attorneys from both sides have proposed settlement discussions for next month and a potential trial starting in March.
Dever also said a jury should decide whether Benjamin resigned as headmaster of the New Bern school or was pressured into quitting. Jurors also should decide whether the school and the Nicholas Sparks Foundation had sufficient grounds to fire Benjamin if he hadn't resigned. The school said Benjamin misrepresented his qualifications before being hired.
If Benjamin resigned from his school position, he would forfeit any severance pay. If he was violating one of a number of fireable offenses, he would have had 30 days to correct the offending behavior. But if he was fired without cause, he would be paid the remainder of his four-year contract plus an extra year.
Benjamin's contracts with both the school and Sparks' foundation totaled $256,000 a year plus bonus and benefits.
The judge ruled Benjamin hadn't showed evidence to back up claims in his four-year-old lawsuit accusing Sparks and other school leaders of forcing him out when he tried to recruit black students and faculty and supported a bullied group of gay students. Benjamin also accused Sparks and other school leaders of making religiously dismissive remarks, but the judge found Benjamin didn't produce direct evidence his Jewish background played a role in his lost employment.
"I am pleased that the Court has now dismissed the vast majority of the claims against me, my Foundation and the School," Sparks said in a statement through his public relations firm. "Very importantly, the Court has dismissed any claims of discrimination or harassment against me. I am confident that any further decisions on the remaining claims will be made in our favor as well."
Benjamin headed the college-prep K-12 school in Sparks' hometown of 30,000 people about 120 miles east of Raleigh between July and November 2013. His hiring came after professorial jobs in Morocco, Germany and Lebanon and working as a senior adviser in President Bill Clinton's Education Department, according to his resume.
Story is all AP content
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Nicholas Sparks attends the Professional Bull Riders 2014 Monster Energy Invitational VIP Party. A film adaptation of Sparks' novel The Best of Me is scheduled to be in theaters on Oct. 17.
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The daily lowdown on books, publishing, and the occasional author behaving badly.
Novelist Nicholas Sparks has been accused of racial and religious discrimination, in a federal lawsuit brought by a former employee on Thursday.
Saul Hillel Benjamin, the ex-headmaster of the Epiphany School of Global Studies, a North Carolina private school co-founded and funded by Sparks and his wife, Catherine, states that he discovered a hostile environment while working at the school and The Nicholas Sparks Foundation.
Among other allegations, Benjamin's complaint says the best-selling author sought to block the recruitment of black students and teachers, supported the bullying of LGBT students and questioned Benjamin's own Jewish background and Quaker faith.
And the complaint isn't short on incendiary language. The Guardian reports that the lawsuit accuses Sparks of endorsing students who "sought to enact a 'homo-caust' against a group of gay students," of having publicly claimed that Benjamin suffered from Alzheimer's disease and, according to The Associated Press, of generally fostering "a veritable cauldron of bigotry toward individuals who are not traditionally Christian, and especially those who are non-white."
Sparks' attorney denied the accusations, according to the AP, and his publicist released a statement from Sparks' entertainment lawyer, Scott Schwimer, that reads: "As a gay, Jewish man who has represented Nick for almost 20 years I find these allegations completely ludicrous and offensive."
Writers Group Pulls For Amazon Probe: The Authors Guild, a century-old professional society of more than 8,500 published writers, went public Thursday with its attempts to invite government scrutiny of Amazon's business practices. According a statement on its website, last summer the Guild — not to be confused with Authors United, another writers' advocacy group seeking investigations of Amazon — "prepared a White Paper on Amazon's anticompetitive conduct, circulating it to the United States Department of Justice and other government entities." The group says it met with members of the Justice Department on Aug. 1 to make their pitch in person.
The news comes as Amazon's pricing dispute with Hachette Book Group roils on, and as Authors United prepares a letter of its own to the DOJ.
Bots Plot Conquest, Libraries First: Robots, the imminent overlords of Earth (give it 50 years or so), are lulling us into a false sense of security with yet another blatant ploy: playing librarians. Say hello to Nancy and Vincent, the humanoid bots coming to Connecticut's Westport Library. No word yet on when, precisely, they'll become self-aware.
Citizen Can't: "If this were a domestic tragedy, and it might well be, this would be your fatal flaw — your memory, vessel of your feelings," writes Claudia Rankine, in "Citizen," a devastating prose poem out now in Granta.
Whoops, My Dear Watson: Anthony Horowitz, the man behind an upcoming James Bond novel, has a few issues to sort out with Sherlock Holmes first. Sarah Lyall reports in the New York Times that advance reading copies of Horowitz's Sherlock novel Moriarty contain some not-so-subtle clues to his writing process. Notes to his copy editor have been mistakenly left in, littering the text in all-caps — including this frank assessment: "I'M NOT CHANGING THIS."
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A movie version of the book is set to film in Winston-Salem late this summer.
nicholassparks.com
Winston-Salem will once again be the backdrop for a major motion picture. Filming for the movie adaptation of the latest Nicholas Sparks book, The Longest Ride will take place in the city later this summer and producers are looking for local talent.
Nicholas Sparks is best known for writing romance novels set in various towns across North Carolina, and this time it’s Winston-Salem’s turn for the spotlight. One of the main characters in The Longest Ride attends Wake Forest University and soon falls for a local bull rider from King, North Carolina.
The book-turned movie will be filmed in both Wilmington and Winton-Salem. Rebecca Clark, Executive Director of the Piedmont Triad Film Commission says it’s a big opportunity to showcase the region. “One of the great things about Nicholas Sparks movies, is that it helps build tourism in an area.”
The Longest Ride is the ninth book by Sparks to be adapted for the big screen. Clark says she expects visitors to flock to Winston-Salem to see where it was filmed, just as they did to South Port, NC, after Safe Haven was released in 2013.
Currently, film makers are looking for extras in The Longest Ride, and anyone in the Triad area is encouraged to apply. Clark says it’s a great opportunity. “It’s really interesting. It’s fun for people who have no idea about the film industry who are curious. It’s a great way to learn about exactly what goes on behind the scenes,” says Clark.
Meanwhile, Clark says she’s worried about future movie productions in the state. Last week, the Senate approved a new film incentives bill that would raise the spending threshold from its current minimum of $250,000 to $10 million. She says although the change could attract films with larger spending budgets, it could also create a disadvantage for smaller productions. “Out of the movies that have been shot in the Piedmont Triad over the last 20 years, only one would have qualified for the film incentive. That’s going to put a huge dent in production in the Piedmont Triad.”
The House is expected to vote on the film incentives bill next week. Those who are interested in the casting call for The Longest Ride can apply online at www.makescenes.com.
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