Costner, Baldwin in court over oil cleanup devices

Actors Kevin Costner and Stephen Baldwin opened a real-life legal drama on Monday as jury selection began in a trial over Baldwin’s claims that Costner cheated him out of his share of a multi-million dollar deal to sell oil-cleanup devices 2010.

Jury selection began in a New Orleans court for a federal lawsuit lodged against Costner by Baldwin and business partner, Spyridon C. Contogouris, Reuters reported.

The suit alleges that Costner, best known for his performance in “Field of Dreams” and “The Bodyguard,” cheated Baldwin and Contogouris out of their share of a multi-million dollar deal under which BP bought 32 oil and water separation devices that were developed by a Costner-owned company, the news wire said. [Hey, whatever happened to “Waterworld”? – Ed.] …

According to the suit, Baldwin and Contogouris claim they were not told about the deal with BP before they agreed to sell their shares in a company that had been set up to market Costner’s extraction devices.

As a result, they charge they were duped out of a portion of an $18 million deposit from BP for the devices.

Centrifuges are nothing new to the oilfield. As far as I know, these devices were never used in BP’s cleanup effort. I was skeptical from the beginning because the spec’d discharge of the centrifuges was something like 0.5% oil, well in excess of the mandated limits, which are measured in parts per million oil in seawater.

Blast from the past: S. Baldwin v. K. Costner is oil cleanup flim-flam.