{"id":289983,"date":"2025-11-18T00:40:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/289983\/"},"modified":"2025-11-18T00:40:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-18T00:40:07","slug":"donald-sutherlands-unfiltered-memoir-held-up-in-dispute-between-publisher-and-estate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/289983\/","title":{"rendered":"Donald Sutherland\u2019s \u2018unfiltered\u2019 memoir held up in dispute between publisher and estate"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Canadian actor Donald Sutherland died on June 20, 2024, at the age of 88.Chris Pizzello\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

When Crown Publishing Group first announced the publication of Donald Sutherland\u2019s memoir, Made Up, But Still True<\/a>, the publisher promised fans of the revered Canadian actor an \u201cunfiltered account of his life\u201d across the stage and screen, filled with \u201craw honesty.\u201d <\/p>\n

Three months after the book was announced in March, 2024, though, Mr. Sutherland died at the age of 88<\/a>, and a project that Crown once hailed as an \u201cunprecedented look at the remarkable life of a legendary \u2013 and legendarily private \u2013 Hollywood icon\u201d has yet to appear on shelves. And likely won\u2019t any time soon. <\/p>\n

As revealed in a lawsuit filed in New York federal court late last month, the publication of Mr. Sutherland\u2019s memoir, which the actor had been working on since at least 2018, is being held up by his estate. <\/p>\n

In the complaint filed Oct. 30 and obtained by The Globe and Mail, Penguin Random House, which controls Crown Publishing Group, alleges that McNichol Pictures, the Miami-based production company that Mr. Sutherland founded in 2012 (\u201cMcNichol\u201d is the actor\u2019s middle name), has failed to deliver a complete manuscript of the memoir by the contractually required deadline of Dec. 10, 2024, and is refusing to return the US$400,000 advance that Penguin Random House paid upon signing. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

A book cover image released by Crown Publishing Group.Peter Hapak-trunk Archive\/The Associated Press<\/p>\n

According to court papers, Penguin Random House, through its imprint Crown, and representatives for McNichol signed a deal for an untitled Sutherland memoir on Oct. 11, 2023, with a total advance against royalties of US$1.25-million, including a US$400,000 payment upon signing of the contract. <\/p>\n

A manuscript was delivered on March 15, 2024 \u2013 three months past the initially agreed upon due date \u2013 after which Crown says its editor provided feedback. But after Mr. Sutherland died of what a statement from his talent agency referred to as a \u201clong illness,\u201d the memoir became the object of a protracted tug of war between Crown and the actor\u2019s estate. <\/p>\n

In the lawsuit, Crown says that about a month after Mr. Sutherland\u2019s death, McNichol informed the publisher that the \u201cdraft was not approved by Mr. Sutherland\u2019s estate.\u201d In August, 2024, the publisher says that it provided a revised draft to \u201cfacilitate completion,\u201d but that after several months\u2019 worth of attempts to engage with McNichol, the publisher set a final delivery deadline of Dec. 10, 2024. That date came and went, with Crown saying that it has yet to receive a complete, acceptable manuscript. <\/p>\n

Donald Sutherland was cinema\u2019s Canadian chameleon<\/a><\/p>\n

This past July, Penguin Random House formally demanded that McNichol return the US$400,000 signing payment, which the publisher alleges the company has yet to do. <\/p>\n

Representatives for Penguin Random House did not reply to requests for comment from The Globe, and representatives for members of Mr. Sutherland\u2019s family either did not respond to queries or declined to comment. (Mr. Sutherland had two children with his second wife, Shirley Douglas: actor Kiefer Sutherland and production manager Rachel Sutherland; he later had three children with his third wife, Francine Racette: talent agent Roeg Sutherland, actor Rossif Sutherland, and producer Angus Sutherland.)<\/p>\n

The Los Angeles-based lawyer Richard D. Rosman, who is listed as the point of contact for McNichol in company paperwork and has worked for Artesian Wells, a production company led by Angus Sutherland, did not respond to requests for comment. <\/p>\n

In 2018, journalist Will Pavia visited Mr. Sutherland\u2019s summer home in Quebec for a story in the British newspaper The Times<\/a> about the actor\u2019s role in the television miniseries Trust \u2013 which focused on an infamous battle of money and power between oil tycoon J. Paul Getty and his children \u2013 and found that the actor was unusually candid for such a well-known public figure. <\/p>\n

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Mr. Sutherland holds his best supporting actor award (television) at the Golden Globe Awards in Beverly Hills, Calif., in 2003.Andy Clark\/Reuters<\/p>\n

\u201cHe was just incredibly friendly and open and completely willing to discuss almost anything,\u201d Mr. Pavia said in an interview with The Globe. \u201cWe talked about the memoir almost by accident, because I was telling him about Jane Fonda\u2019s memoir, and he asked me, sort of, \u2018Am I in it?\u2019 And I had this moment of panic where I was like, \u2018Oh no, he\u2019s written his own memoir,\u2019 and I hadn\u2019t read it in my research! But he said that he hadn\u2019t published it yet. He was a little bit reticent about that, a little cautious about speaking about it.\u201d <\/p>\n

Born in Saint John, the silver-tongued Mr. Sutherland appeared in more than 125 films and television series across his career, which spanned the rebellious era of the 1960s, when he worked with such mavericks as Robert Altman (M*A*S*H), Alan J. Pakula (Klute, co-starring Ms. Fonda), John Landis (Animal House), Nicolas Roeg (Don\u2019t Look Now), and Philip Kaufman (Invasion of the Body Snatchers). As he grew older, Mr. Sutherland would become a widely respected elder statesman of the blockbuster-obsessed Hollywood age, lending his gravitas to everything from such action flicks as The Italian Job to mega-franchises like The Hunger Games. <\/p>\n

All along, Mr. Sutherland remained a politically outspoken force in the film industry. He protested against the Vietnam War alongside Ms. Fonda, and decades later, decried the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. His personal life was also headline fodder, with his three-year-long affair with Ms. Fonda leading to the breakup of his marriage with Ms. Douglas.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe got together shortly before we made Klute and then we were together until the relationship exploded and fell apart in Tokyo,\u201d Mr. Sutherland once recalled. \u201cAnd it broke my heart. I was eviscerated. I was so sad. It was a wonderful relationship right up to the point we lived together.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite his success in Hollywood, though, Mr. Sutherland famously held on to his Canadian citizenship. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey ask me at the border why I don\u2019t take American citizenship. I could still be Canadian, they say. \u2018You could have dual citizenship.\u2019 But I say: \u2018No, I\u2019m not dual anything. I\u2019m Canadian,\u2019\u201d Mr. Sutherland once wrote in The Globe. \u201cThere\u2019s a Maple Leaf in my underwear somewhere. There used to be a beaver there, too, but I\u2019m 80 now and beavers are known to take off when you\u2019re in your 80s.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Canadian actor Donald Sutherland died on June 20, 2024, at the age of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":289984,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,361,46,549,75,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-289983","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-celebrities","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-entertainment","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289983","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=289983"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/289983\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/289984"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=289983"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=289983"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=289983"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}