'Brokeback' actor sues for US$10m over bit-part blues

Randy Quaid

LOS ANGELES - Not everyone goes away happy when a Hollywood film earns a lot of money.

Just ask Randy Quaid, the veteran character actor who took on a bit part in the wildly successful Brokeback Mountain and now feels distinctly bitter about it.

Quaid - who plays a farm manager in the story of a 20-year taboo love affair between two sheep herders - claims he was misled about the film and thus agreed to accept a modest acting fee.

He is suing the producers for $10m (NZ$16m), which he says, with an apparently straight face, is his habitual salary for appearing in major motion pictures.

"From day one," the suit says, "defendants fully intended that the film would not be made on a low budget, would be given a worldwide release and would be supported as the studio picture it always was and secretly intended to be."Costing under $15m to make, Brokeback has earned more than US$150m worldwide.

- INDEPENDENT