Actor Sean Penn Settles Suit Over Defunct Santa Monica Nightclub

By Lookout Staff

Monday, August 2 -- Sean Penn has settled a lawsuit he brought against a lawyer he alleged took control of a defunct Santa Monica nightclub the actor co-owned, according to court sources.

Penn's suit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court in March last year, claimed that Los Angeles Attorney John S. Hilbert repeatedly blocked the proposed sale of McInerney's, a Las Vegas style dinner club that closed its doors one year after a splashy opening in 1996.

The suit sought $130,000 in compensation for Penn's investment plus punitive damages. Terms of the settlement were not disclosed.

McInerney's was owned by a trio that included Penn, along with Michael McInerney, a long-time and well-known club owner, and Robert Cooper. With a dinner-theater lounge style that might have fit better on the glitzy Vegas strip than a dowdy stretch of Wilshire Boulevard, McInerney's appealed to an older and seemingly more monied crowd.

It was not a typical Los Angeles-style hip club, yet it drew some of Penn's friends, including former O.J. Simpson house guest Kato Kalin, who would show up on Saturday nights. Other reported guests were Lyle Lovett, Bruce Springsteen, Jack Nicholson and other celebrities, who were spotted performing or sitting in the roped off area reserved for VIP's or in the equally exclusive cigar smoking room. Indeed, the music - usually jazz - often seemed merely a background for people-watching on the overstuffed couches and arm chairs that decorated the room.

But a year after opening, McInerney, the appointed manager of the partnership, informed Penn that the club was losing money. Bash, a trendy Miami Beach nightclub Penn also partly owned, offered to buy the Santa Monica venue.

After attempts to sell the club were blocked by Hilbert, McInerney signed over the liquor license and lease to the defendant, the suit alleges. Hilbert then told Penn that if he persuaded Bash to buy the club at a price Hilbert knew would never be accepted, the actor could recoup his losses, according to the suit. In addition, Penn would have to pay Hilbert $66,000.

The club has since taken on a different look under its new ownership and name - Lush -- which is run by the same group that operates Martini Lounge in Hollywood, among other Los Angeles venues. For its weeknight special events, throngs of 20-something's cluster outside on Wilshire Boulevard, waiting to get in.