More from the pop courts, and this ongoing dispute between Jennifer Lopez and her first husband, Ojani Noa, who, as previously reported, is threatening to publish a tell-all book about their brief marriage. Personally I'd just let him publish it, tolerate some embarrassment for a couple of months, and then get on with my life. But that's possibly why my celebrity management agency never got off the ground.
Either way, Lopez is keen to stop the book ever getting out. As previously reported, she sued Noa over the book last year on grounds of breach of contract, and successfully obtained an injunction to delay its publication. She also asked that her ex be forced into arbitration - ie agree to allow an independent third party, other than a court, to rule on the dispute. Presumably because that could be done in private, where as if the disagreement is fought in court then the disputed content in the book will probably get into the public domain anyway, even if the book is ultimately never published. Certainly Noa seemed to be resisting arbitration, in favour of a full court trial, for that reason.
Anyway, in the latest development, a LA court has now told Noa he will, in fact, have to agree to arbitration, seemingly because he is bound to do so under the terms of a previous settlement between the couple in October 2005. Or something like that. A progress hearing on the arbitration process has now been set for 30 Jul, which presumably means nobody expects a settlement to be reached on this especially quickly, even if Noa does now agree to arbitration.