November 12, 2004

Lisa Minnelli and Burt Reynolds to Wed in North Dakota

New State Law Shields Celebrity Couples from Lawsuits

A Los Angeles divorce lawyer says he is close to concluding an agreement that would solve the legal problems of Lisa Minnelli and Burt Reynolds. All they have to do is marry and live together as man and wife for a minimum of 200 days during 2005 in Antler, North Dakota, a village of 47 people located five miles from the Canadian border.

The odd matrimonial arrangement would take advantage of a new North Dakota law that allows a couple that marries to shield itself from lawsuits under certain conditions. When the North Dakota legislature passed the legislation, it stipulated that couples would have to establish a residence in one of the state's small towns. The towns are struggling to survive a steady population drain.

Raul Morrison, who specializes in celebrity matrimonial law, said legal advisors to both Reynolds and Minnelli are urging their clients to enter into the North Dakota marriage that Morrison is proposing to arrange. It apparently would allow both to bring their legal troubles to a quick end.

Reynolds, 68, a television and film actor best known for his roles in the movies “Smokey and the Bandit,” “Deliverance,” “The Longest Yard” and “Boogie Nights," has sued a former girl friend, accusing her of threatening to falsely accuse him of abuse unless he paid her a large sum of money.

Minnelli, 55, a singer and actress who won the best actress Oscar in 1972 for her role in "Cabaret" is embroiled in a nasty divorce proceeding with her estranged husband David Gest. He is suing her for $10 million, claiming she beat him during drunken rages. Minnelli has counter-sued, asking more than $2 million.

In addition, M'hammed Soumayah, Minnelli's former bodyguard and chauffeur, has accused the singer of forcing him to have sex with her and seeks more than $100 million in damages.

"It was celebrities with legal problems just like those that Mr. Reynolds and Ms. Minnelli have that the North Dakota legislature was thinking about when they enacted this very imaginative and creative law," Morrison said. The lawyer said he was unaware of the North Dakota law until a delegation of North Dakota Ambassadors of Goodwill visited Los Angeles last month and began calling on high profile matrimonial lawyers.

Morrison said couples who marry in North Dakota and establish a bona fide marital relationship and meet the 200 day residency requirement during a calendar year can consolidate all their legal troubles into a single legal action subject to a non-jury trial in a North Dakota court.

"I'm told that judges in North Dakota are likely to be disposed in favor of wealthy celebrity defendants who are the victims of frivolous lawsuits, particularly if they are happily married, law-abiding residents of the state who don't cause any trouble and aren't too weird," Morrison said.

Antler had a population of 74 in the 1990 census, but it shrank to 47 people in the 2000 census. Morrison said that if Reynolds and Minnelli agree to his marriage plan, they will live in the apartment in the garage behind Bertha Swenson's home.

"She's fixed it up as a very nice apartment with its own bathroom, running water in the kitchen, and a nice wood-burning stove for heat," Morrison said. "It sounds like a cozy home for newlyweds. Those two strike me as very compatible."

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