Cosmetics magnate Ronald Perelman owes more than $4 million to a movie production company he started with ex-wife Ellen Barkin, an appeals court ruled Thursday in a case that spiraled out of the former couple’s acerbic divorce.
The Revlon Inc. chairman and the “Sea of Love” actress have been divorced since 2006, but they’re still entwined in lawsuits over Applehead Pictures, a company they formed in 2005 with Barkin’s brother, George.
Barkin’s camp is “thrilled” with the decision, which upholds a lower court’s ruling, said lawyer Jacob W. Buchdahl. A Perelman spokeswoman called Thursday’s decision unfortunate but noted that has raised related claims in a separate, ongoing lawsuit.
Perelman — whose net worth Forbes estimates at $11 billion — acknowledges he didn’t pay more than $3.4 million he’d agreed to put into the Applehead venture. He says the Barkins negated his obligation by forming another film company, not having George Barkin work full-time, and other actions, some more personal than professional.
Perelman argued, for instance, that the actress had broken their separation agreement — and therefore his continuing responsibilities to Applehead — by not taking steps to obtain a get, or a Jewish divorce document.
Barkin’s camp has called his Applehead claims frivolous and said the case is simply about honoring a business deal.
A panel of state Supreme Court Appellate Division judges found Perelman must do so, saying “the Barkins’ alleged breaches would not operate to relieve Perelman of his independent obligations to the company.”
The ruling calls for him to pay more than $4.3 million, which includes interest on the original sum.
“Applehead and Ellen Barkin were thrilled to see that the court had agreed with what they were saying all along, which is that when you sign a contract, you have to live up to it,” Buchdahl said.
As for Perelman’s side, “We still maintain Ms. Barkin should not be entitled to any additional money beyond the enormous settlement she received five years ago,” spokeswoman Christine M. Taylor said in a statement.
She wouldn’t say how enormous the settlement was, but it’s been widely reported to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Barkin also sold off jewelry Perelman gave her at an auction that fetched more than $20 million; she told an interviewer the pieces were “not memories I want to wear out every day.”
Taylor said Perelman “has moved on from this,” though he is also pursuing a separate lawsuit alleging Barkin and others mismanaged Applehead.
Barkin, now 56, and Perelman, 67, married in 2000. The “Ocean’s Thirteen” and “The Big Easy” actress became his fourth wife after, she once said, he approached her at a party and asked, “Are you single or married or what?”
Applehead was a producer on this year’s “Letters to Juliet,” a romantic comedy starring Gael Garcia Bernal, Amanda Seyfried and Vanessa Redgrave.
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