The Battle for 'The Butler' Is Officially an Extortion Plot

The last-minute back-and-forth Hollywood legal tiff between The Weinstein Company and Warner Bros. over whether The Butler, Lee Daniels' flick, will hit theaters on August 16 under that name got a lot realer after super attorney David Boies accused the other side of extortion. 

Since we last checked in with these fighting film executives behaving, the two sides exchanged a series of long, arduous legal letters accusing the other side of various amounts of wrong doing over the holiday weekend. And, of course, it's all playing out in real time on Deadline. The Weinstein Company is appealing