Lawsuit: Josh Lucas Film Stiffed Hotel For $37,000

Like Detroit doesn't have enough to worry about today. The embattled chief of police just resigned, Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge is out for at least six weeks with a broken hand, and now Josh Lucas can't even shoot a movie in the outskirts without the producers allegedly skipping town -- leaving a $37,000 hotel bill unpaid.

According to a lawsuit filed by the upscale Townsend Hotel in the suburb of Birmingham, the producers of the film Little Murder ran their open account well into five figures between Aug. 6 and Sept. 25 of last year, then checked out before squaring up. Lucas and co-stars Cary Elwes and Lake Bell are among those mentioned in the filing with the Oakland Circuit Court -- not as defendants, but as some of the talent and crew who used the rooms and dining provided by Little Murder Productions and Mind in Motion Entertainment, neither of whose credit cards seem to have quite covered the $37,000 expense.

Those production companies are nowhere to be found today, and the Michigan Film Office naturally is beside itself. ""This is a regrettable situation and certainly a rarity with more than 100 film projects going in and out of the state without any problems of this kind," a spokesman told the Detroit News. "We do everything we can to make sure film projects in Michigan are funded properly and able to meet their obligations." Ironically, the thriller is set in New Orleans -- itself a tax credit oasis passed over here for the even more competitive Wolverine State.

Fun aside: Michigan's movie-subsidy overseers this week rejected a cannibal film called The Women on content grounds. The shoot has since moved on to Massachusetts. Michigan! Sheesh. They really know to to pick 'em.

· Townsend: Film company stiffed hotel for $37K bill [Detroit News]