One of daytime's best-known divas has filed a law suit against the former head of her online fan club. In legal documents filed in U.S. District Court on August 31 and obtained by the celebrity gossip site RadarOnline.com, former Days of our Lives star Deidre Hall (ex-Marlena Evans) alleges that Cathleen J. Paradis, who was removed as Hall's fan club president, has been involved in the misappropriation of publicity rights, breach of fiduciary duty, common law trademark infringement, cyberpiracy, and false designation of origin. As a result, Hall seeks replevin, a legal remedy for a person to recover goods unlawfully withheld from his or her possession.
During Paradis' time as Hall's fan club president, Paradis reportedly volunteered to do various tasks for Hall, including the registration of several domain sites for Hall's use. According to Hall, Paradis has "refused, and continues to refuse to surrender the domain name deidrehall.com and other domain names on behalf of Hall, unless Hall pays her thousands of dollars."
Additionally, the Emmy-nominated actress said that Paradis has continued "to use her image and likeness on the Web sites to generate Internet traffic and sell unauthorized merchandise, including... private photographs of Hall and her minor children."
The 62-year-old Hall is seeking "to recover damages for Paradis' unauthorized exploitation" of her likeness, and to gain control of the Web sites. The actress also wants to recover personal property that remains in Paradis' possession, including photographs, video footage, and other memorabilia.
Hall originated the role of Marlena is 1976. She was let go from the show in late 2008, and made her final on-air appearance on January 23, 2009.
Since news of the lawsuit first broke, the content portion of the deidrehall.com web site has been removed, and all traffic is redirected to a message board. The domain name, however, remains registered to Paradis.
Calls made to Paradis to allow her the opportunity to offer her side of the story went unreturned. Paradis did, however, speak to the New York Post about the lawsuit, and asserted that she'd never been paid for her years of service to Hall.
"I was very loyal and dedicated for a lot of years. But you have to draw a line in the sand at some point," Paradis explained. "I had bills to pay. I couldn't just keep using all of my time doing everything she wanted and expect the tooth fairy to pay my rent. I submitted the bill for [my work], and [Hall] didn't want to pay."
