Selena’s Dad Is Suing Her Widower Over A TV Show About Her Life

The ORIGINAL Selena’s widower Chris Perez is trying to turn his 2012 memoir To Selena, With Love into a TV series, but there’s a major road block in his way and that major road block is his late wife’s dad. Abraham Quintanilla Jr. has filed legal papers to put an end to production of the show. Now, you may be wondering if this is a case of a dad trying to protect his late daughter’s image or a case of “I am the only one who can make $$$$ off of my daughter!” It’s not that cut and dry, because Chris currently gets a percentage of profits from Selena’s estate.

The Corpus Christi Caller-Times reports that last Friday, Abraham Quintanilla Jr. filed a lawsuit against Chris, his production company Blue Mariachi and Endemol Latino, the company behind the show. Abraham states in his lawsuit that Chris’ book is “unauthorized” and he has zero rights when it comes to using Selena’s name, likeness, voice and signature. E! News says that Abraham argues that two months after Selena’s death in 1995, Chris signed an estate agreement that makes it clear that Daddy Q is the only person with “ownership and all proprietary rights in the name, voice, signature, photograph, and likeness of Selena.” The agreement also states that Chris gets 25% of “the net profits derived from” official Selena projects. A lawyer for Selena’s estate says that Chris Perez has violated that agreement.

“The petition states Mr. Perez violated the Entertainment Properties agreement. He doesn’t have the rights to publish a book or produce a television series based in any part on Selena. Among other things, we are seeking a judicial declaration that the defendants have no right to exploit the series and stop production.”

As those of us who say, “Anything for Salinas,” at least once a week knows, Selena’s estate approved a movie of her life and a musical too. And last year, her dad gave the thumbs up to a line of MAC cosmetics inspired by her and a purple vinyl record of her hits.

So either Chris Perez has to drop his TV show, Vaseline up his face for a messy court fight or try to be slick by changing the name of his show to: To Serena, With Love. And since we’re on the subject of lawsuits involving Selena, I may need to file one. A little while ago, my cousin was playing one of Selena’s albums and her kid, who’s like 12, asked me who the singer was. When I told her it was Selena, she asked, “Selena’s got that many Spanish songs?” She thought I was talking about Selena Gomez! This country education’s system has failed our children by not teaching them that there’s only one Selena with no last name! So now I plan to sue my first cousin once removed for slander on Selena’s behalf.

Pic: AP