Hewitt Settles Dispute With Friend; Markets Softer Side In DVD

This story is a bit old, but interesting nevertheless:
Yahoo Sports **
Mon Nov 14, 6:21 AM ET

SYDNEY (AFP) - Tennis bad boy Lleyton Hewitt found himself in court in an unusual dispute with his former best friend over Aboriginal cultural rights.

Andrew McLeod, an indigenous star player for the Australian rules football team in Hewitt's hometown of Adelaide, took the world No. 4 to court over a documentary film Hewitt hopes will show the world his softer side.

The film entitled "Lleyton Hewitt: The Other Side" included footage of Hewitt and McLeod visiting Aboriginal sacred sites together in Australia's Northern Territory last year.

In the DVD, McLeod showed Hewitt several aspects of his culture, including bush walking, dancing, fishing and story-telling. Parts of the film were shot in areas considered sacred by Aborigines.

McLeod later sought an injunction to block the marketing of the DVD, claiming Hewitt had not sought his permission or that of traditional landowners before including culturally sensitive footage in his film.

But when the pair arrived at Melbourne court on Monday, Hewitt and McLeod quickly closed themselves up with their lawyers and hammered out a settlement in nearly five hours of discussions.

In a joint statement, McLeod and Hewitt said the "concerns in relation to the DVD arose largely as a result of misunderstandings about the way in which the DVD would be put together".

"Those misunderstandings have now been addressed and Andrew McLeod has advised that he has no objection to and supports the release and distribution of the DVD without change."

The film was expected to be on store shelves before Christmas.

Who would have thought Lleyton Hewitt had black friends? Especially after the 2001 U.S. Open incident in which African-American tennis star James Blake took exception to some of Hewitt’s comments about a black linesman. For the record, referees determined that the evidence was inconclusive as to whether Hewitt's comments were racially motivated, and thus he did not violate the Grand Slam code of conduct.

As a dad-to-be Hewitt wants to market his softer side. Perhaps he just gets a bad rap.

**Again, I apologize for the link not working. I'm still trying to work out with Blogger what the problem is. If you want to go to the story, just click on the link and delete the: http://www.blogger.com/”
that pops up before the url in the address bar and hit return.