Coleen Rooney is claimed to have won yet another battle against Rebakah Vardy, this time over her Disney+ documentary.
The Disney+ series will tell the story of the Wagatha Christie trial, a libel action that began in 2019 and completed this summer, and will follow Rooney and her husband Wayne through the court process.
Vardy, 41, lost his lawsuit against Rooney, 37, after the latter accused the former of leaking ‘fake tales’ about her to the press, and it’s all ready to play out again on our screens.
After being unable to utilise the iconic line ‘Wagatha Christie,’ Disney+ has now forced to devise a workaround for the series’ title.
‘Wagatha Christie’ refers to ‘WAGs’ (aka the wives and girlfriends of sportsmen) and Rooney being her very own mystery-solving Agatha Christie, but it was actually Vardy who won rights of the phrase.
So, if the phrase is used commercially – whether it’s printed on a T-shirt, broadcasted, or inscribed on cosmetics – Vardy will have to give her consent first, and if she agrees, she will be paid.
Disney+ bosses have found a different title for the docuseries, with a source saying it will now be called Coleen Rooney: The Real Wagatha Story, according to The Sun.
A source told the publication: ‘Disney lawyers are comfortable with the new title even though it is obviously close to the phrase which Rebekah owns the right to, and would have almost certainly prevented them from using.
‘If she still feels it’s too close to ‘Wagatha Christie’ then she would have to contend with the streaming giant’s legal team who are among the most formidable in the world of entertainment.
‘Which will be a relief to Coleen who faced the prospect of not being able to make a nod to the very phrase which her investigative skills gave birth to.’
Sean Doyle, Disney+ head of unscripted programming, recently disclosed the streamer will get ‘exclusive access’ to Rooney for the documentary, noting that it is ‘ a bit surprise’ for Disney+ to sign up to negotiate a deal with her but it hers is a tale ‘people want to hear’.
He also believes that while some may not have thought Disney would be suitable to take on the Wagatha Christie tale a year ago, the stuff they are bringing to the streaming service, like as the Kardashians, is ‘changing people’s expectations’ of what they create.
In a press release, Disney said: ‘Uncovering one of the biggest tabloid news stories in Britain for the last decade, it reveals how Coleen turned amateur online sleuth to find an explanation for why private stories concerning herself and her family continued to appear in the media.
‘The three-part series will take viewers from the circumstances that led to her infamous Instagram post that “broke the Internet” all the way to Coleen being a successful defendant in one of the UK’s highest-profile High Court defamation cases brought against her by Rebekah Vardy.’
Meanwhile, the show will also ‘explore how Coleen has had her life played out in public for the last 20 years’, telling the story of ‘a working-class teenager turned confident mother of four and businesswoman’.
