Michael Douglas' wife lays claim to his Wall Street earnings

NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Douglas’ (left) return to his Academy Award-winning Wall Street role also spawned a legal sequel to his decade-old divorce.

Lawyers representing the actor and ex-wife Diandra Douglas (center) tangled in a New York court Tuesday over her claim that she’s entitled to half his earnings from Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps, set to open Sept. 24.

The dispute has featured accusations of avarice on both sides and an unusually detailed look at Hollywood-style divorce.

The couple’s 23-year marriage ended in 2000. He’s now married to Catherine Zeta-Jones.

The former couple’s multimillion-dollar divorce gives Diandra Douglas the right to share in proceeds from spin-offs from work. Michael Douglas did while they were married.

That, her camp says, should include director Oliver Stone’s Wall Street follow-up, in which Michael reprises and updates his Oscar-winning role as Gordon Gekko, the take-no-prisoners financier whose declaration that “greed is good” became either a slogan or an epithet for the 1980s, depending on one’s perspective.

But Michael’s lawyer says his ex is misinterpreting the agreement, and it doesn’t apply to the “Wall Street” sequel. It wasn’t on the horizon when the two split, and he didn’t then have so much as a guarantee that he’d be in a sequel if one were ever made, said his lawyer, Marilyn B. Chinitz.