Bad Craziness

Some enemies you just don’t want. In the pantheon of people you’d rather not tangle with, Sonny Barger, the infamous leader of the Hell’s Angels, would probably rank right up there with the biggest and the meanest: Al-Sadr, Gotti, Harvey Weinstein. Yet this article at MSNBC.com reports that Barger is suing HBO and writer/producer Michael Tolkin (The Player), asserting that they conspired to develop the upcoming series 1%, which is set in the world of outlaw bikers, with Barger and then cut him from the project without paying him. If Barger’s allegations are true (no trial date has been set yet), that would be an astonishing display of, let’s say, piss-poor rock-bottom judgment on the part of Tolkin and HBO. As anyone who has read Barger’s gruesome and graphic autobiography Hell’s Angel knows, he’s just a wee bit rougher than the typical H’wood celebs who throw a hissy over a bad latte order. In one particularly memorable chapter, he recalled how members of a rival biker club once stole his motorcycle. So he sat the misguided lads down and calmly and reasonably explained, using such recognized teaching aids as bullwhips and ball-peen hammers, why that was probably not the wisest decision they had ever made. I, for one, certainly learned my lesson, and I wasn’t even born then. While 1% itself sounds quite promising (it’s just started production with Donal Logue in the lead), I have only one piece of advice for Tolkin and HBO: out-of-court settlement. Your skull and vital internal organs will thank you for it.