by charlie cravero Jared Leto performing in Italy in February 2008 image:42681:4::0

On the basis of repudiation of contract, Virgin Records has filed a lawsuit against 30 Seconds To Mars and the band's lead singer, Jared Leto. The band failed to deliver an album, despite having the top hit From Yesterday in 2007.

According to the Associated Press:

Virgin Records sued the band and front man Jared Leto in Los Angeles on Friday, claiming they refused to deliver three albums as required by its contract.

A publicist for Leto, an actor who starred in the film “Requiem for a Dream” and the TV show “My So-Called Life,” did not return a message Friday.

On Jared Leto's website that boasts of everything Jared Leto, the $30 Million (USD) lawsuit is listed right there amongst the favourite Leto quote and photographs.

In a letter posted on the band's official website, further explanation from their side tells how they are not calling it quits and actually said the lawsuit by Virgin/EMI was in response to the band terminating an out of date contract:

Yes we have been sued by EMI. But NOT for failing to deliver music or for 'quitting'. We have been sued by the corporation quite simply because roughly 45 days ago we exercised our legal right to terminate our old, out of date contract, which, according to the law is null and void.

We terminated for a number of reasons, which we won't go into here (we'd rather not air any dirty laundry) but basically our representatives could not get EMI to agree to make a fair and reasonable deal.

According to their website and the letter dated August 18, 2008, the original contract signed with Virgin/EMI was 9-years-old and under California law, a contractual bind like this doesn't hold past 7 years. MTV news released an article today, quoting Leto's website response to the suit as "Ridiculously overblown".

It will be interesting to see where the lawsuit finds itself.