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E-Trade sued by tough-guy Keitel over canceled ads

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Actor Harvey Keitel comes across in his movie roles as a tough guy you wouldn't want to cross.

But that apparently didn't deter on-line stock trading firm E-Trade Financial Corp., which allegedly reneged on a deal to star the actor in a commercial campaign.

According to the lawsuit filed by Mr. Keitel, New York-based E-Trade offered Mr. Keitel a $1.5 million deal early last year to feature him in a series of three television commercials after being turned down twice by Christopher Walken.

But, two days after Mr. Keitel accepted the deal, the firm apparently had second thoughts and told him it had decided to go in a different direction. It offered Mr. Keitel a kill fee of $150,000 instead, according to the lawsuit.

That didn't leave the “Pulp Fiction” actor very happy, and Mr. Keitel is now suing E-Trade for breach of contract, claiming it owes him the entire $1.5 million.

“By offering a 'kill fee,' E-Trade acknowledged and admitted that it had an existing, binding and enforceable contract with Mr. Keitel,” says the lawsuit, Harvey Keitel v. E-Trade Financial Corp., which was filed in New York Supreme Court in New York on Monday.

Meanwhile, E-Trade decided to go with another tough-guy actor, Kevin Spacey, who stars in Netflix's “House of Cards.”

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