Lawsuits involving celebrities always seem to grab attention. If the celebrity is suing another celebrity, then that just makes the story more interesting. When a celebrity sues a member of his or her own family, well, that seems to get everybody talking. So, when I read a headline that said that Hulk Hogan was suing his ex-wife over insurance, I immediately wanted to know more about what was going on.
Hulk Hogan is the stage name, or “ring name”, for professional wrestler Terry Bollea. He became extremely popular in the mid 1980’s and early 1990’s as Hulk Hogan, a wrestler in the World Wrestling Federation. The phrase “Hulkamania” was used in reference to Hulk Hogan, who used to call his fans “Hulkamaniacs”.
The lawsuit that Terry Bollea filed against his ex-wife Linda Bollea actually goes back to a car crash that their son Nick Bollea was involved in. Nick was seventeen years old at the time. He was driving his yellow Toyota Supra on a four lane highway in Florida, and smashed into a 25 foot palm tree, which totaled his car. He also critically injured John Graziano, a former Marine, who was twenty three years old at the time, and a friend of Nick.
This week, Attorneys for Terry Bollea filed court papers that added his ex-wife, Linda Bollea, as a defendant in a lawsuit that had previously been filed. In that lawsuit the claim was that Wells Fargo Insurance Services failed in their responsibility to set up Terry Bollea with an umbrella insurance policy that would protect his net worth. The car accident his son, Nick, was involved in was highly publicized. Naturally, whenever the news about a celebrity is negative, there is potential for the news to affect the future earnings of a celebrity.
Now, why sue his ex-wife about this? It turns out that she worked as the business manager for the couple. Therefore, the claim is that it was her responsibility to set up the umbrella insurance policy, and that she failed to do so.
Image by Daniel Huntley on Flickr