Lindsay, Mom Record Settlement

04/23/2007 9:54 AM, E! Online


Lindsay Lohan won't have to face the (kid-friendly) music after all.

The recently rehabbed star, caught up in a lawsuit involving her mother and a record deal gone south, was looking at possible sanctions at a court hearing scheduled for today. But her presence wasn't required amid word the lawsuit was settled last month.

Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

Record producers Antonio Almeida and Mitchell Chait alleged in their suit that Dina Lohan had welched on a 2002 deal to have Lindsay, then 16, cut an album with them. The producers claimed the Lohans bailed when a better deal came along.

In court papers filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Chait and Almeida said Lindsay had recorded about half the tracks for a planned debut album (made with the financial backing of Emilio Estefan, Gloria's mogul husband) when the mother-daughter duo broke their contract and signed a long-term deal in 2004 with Tommy Mottola's Casablanca Records, resulting in the pop opuses Speak and A Little More Personal (Raw).

Chait and Almeida accused  Dina (listed as "Dinah" in the suit) of contract fraud and breach of fiduciary duties and sought compensatory and punitive damages.

Lindsay (or "Lindsey," per the non-Us Weekly reading lawyers) was ordered to give a deposition last August about the role her mother played in fostering her music career. But Lindsay never turned up.

In October, Lohan was subpoenaed outside the 21st Annual American Cinematheque Award Gala. A woman, under the guise of an autograph seeker, handed the legal papers to Lohan and informed the actress she had been served before taking off into the crowd.

Today's hearing would have determined whether the younger Lohan would face up to $4,450 in fines for failing to give her deposition.