Charlie Sheen Plans To Sue Warner Bros. Over 'Men' Firing

As you might expect, the divorce between troubled actor Charlie Sheen and the creators of "Two and a Half Men" has gotten very ugly, very quickly. Not long after Warner Bros. announced on Monday that it had fired Sheen from the show effective immediately, Sheen's lawyer told The Hollywood Reporter that legal action is imminent.

"We will sue," Sheen's attorney, Marty Singer, said on Monday. "It's a matter of when. It could be this week; it could be in a little while. We're in no rush. But we will sue."

After weeks of what were described as "increasingly rancorous letters" between Singer and Warner Bros., the lawyer said he was not surprised that his client's contract was terminated.

As Sheen has claimed all along, though, Singer said Warners was in breach of its agreement with the formerly highest-paid sitcom actor on TV, despite Sheen's recent spate of incendiary interviews and comments about the show's runners and co-creator Chuck Lorre.

"They have no basis to suspend or terminate Charlie Sheen," Singer said. He added that the firing came after a "blistering" letter he sent to Warners on March 2 outlining Sheen's case against the studio.

"From January 2010, even after my client was arrested and then charged with a felony and misdemeanor charges, Warner Bros. did not suspend my client," read the letter. "Instead it wanted my client to agree to commit to do additional seasons of ['Men']. Warner Bros. confirmed that it would continue to employ Mr. Sheen even if he pleaded guilty to a felony as long as he did not serve jail time that would interfere with the production schedule."

That letter reportedly was the final straw, inspiring Warner Bros. to send an 11-page letter of its own (obtained by TMZ), ending its relationship with Sheen and describing him as being "engaged in dangerously self-destructive conduct and appears to be very ill."

The company goes on to give an explanation for why Sheen was being let go. "There is ample evidence supporting Warner Bros. reasonable good faith opinion that Mr. Sheen has committed felony offenses involving moral turpitude (including but not limited to furnishing of cocaine to others as part of the self-destructive lifestyle he has described publicly) that have 'interfere[d] with his ability to fully and completely render all material services required' under the agreement," reads the letter. It also mentions his trashing of a hotel room at the Plaza in New York last year, various drug binges, missed rehearsals, flubbed lines, rants against Lorre and production shutdowns due to Sheen's trips to rehab and the firing of his sobriety coach. It also details an attempt to make a private plane available to Sheen to take him to rehab, an offer he allegedly brushed off.

"Regrettably, Mr. Sheen failed to continue with his rehabilitation program," the letter claims. "The result has been a series of well-chronicled and increasingly erratic outbursts that have culminated with Mr. Sheen's public tirades of the last few weeks."

Even without his gig on the show, though, Sheen's camp claims he will still get paid. TMZ reported that unnamed sources close to the actor said on Monday that if Sheen is replaced and "Men" continues with new episodes, the "Platoon" star will draw a paycheck. That's because Sheen allegedly has a "Michael J. Fox" clause (referring to Fox's "Spin City" stint) in his contract that ensures that he will keep getting paid as long as the show is in production, even if he is not on it. Ironically, Fox benefitted from that clause when he left "City" and was replaced by Sheen.

Amid all the drama, Sheen seemed to be in a celebratory mood on Monday. After reportedly taking a meeting about a potential Conan O'Brien-style stand-up tour, the actor climbed onto the roof of the Live Nation building in Beverly Hills and waved a machete as he swigged from a bottle labeled Tiger Blood and said he was "free at last!"