Composer Seeks At Least $5M In 'Real Housewives' Royalties Spat

LOS ANGELES, CA — Composer Alan Lazar is suing Evolution Media over alleged unpaid royalties stemming from music cues associated with Bravo's "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills."

Lazar's Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges fraud and seeks at least $5 million in damages. An Evolution Media representative could not be immediately reached for comment on the suit filed Tuesday.

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Lazar has been a musician and composer for over 40 years. He was recently elected by unanimous vote as vice chair of the Production Music Association, the leading global organization for production music professionals.

Based on Lazar's reputation, Evolution approached him in 2010 and asked him to compose background music cues for the upcoming first season of its then-unknown television show, "The Real Housewives of Beverly Hills," according to the suit.

Lazar and Evolution entered into an agreement in June 2010 in which Lazar would compose music cues for the show, the suit states. The payments to Lazar were to include mechanical royalties Evolution received in connection with the music cues, the suit further states.

Mechanical royalties are payments made to songwriters and music publishers whenever a copyrighted musical composition is reproduced or distributed.

Yet, Evolution did not tell Lazar that it had already given up the ability to pay the 58-year-old South African native any royalties because of its prior agreement with the Bravo television network, which was never disclosed to Lazar until 2025, according to the suit.

"In other words, Evolution promised Mr. Lazar something that Evolution knew it could never give to him and Mr. Lazar blindly relied on that promise to his detriment," the suit alleges. "And that equates to fraud under California law."

To date, Evolution has paid Lazar his flat fee for each of the music cues and Lazar has also received his writer's share of performance royalties, which are paid to him directly from Broadcast Music Inc. and not through Evolution, the suit states.

However, while Evolution does not dispute that Mr. Lazar is entitled to mechanical royalties received by Evolution in connection with the Music Cues, the composer has never been paid any such money from Evolution or anyone else, according to the complaint.

The RHOBH series grew into an "iconic staple" in reality television and in the general pop culture zeitgeist," the suit states. "It is undeniable that Mr. Lazar's music became a fundamental component of RHOBH, setting the musical tone for both that series and its numerous spin-offs."

Evolution gave Lazar a "music by" credit on RHOBH, the suit states. Evolution also continued to engage Lazar to create music cues for subsequent seasons of the program and also engaged him to do the same for other "Real Housewives" series, including "The Real Housewives of Orange County."

City News Service