A divorce settlement agreement is supposed to take care of everything related to the marriage and divorce, past, present and future.  So lawyers usually take great care in drafting them.  They have to peer into the future, predict everything that can go wrong, and select just the right words for clarity in case some judge is trying to figure out what they meant ten years from now.

Which is what the judge has to do in movie star Michael Douglas’s divorce, reports eonline.com.  His ex-wife, Diandra Douglas, has filed suit for 50% of his income from Wall Street 2.

Her $45 million dollar settlement in 2000 has a provision that states she is entitled to half his earnings from any residuals, merchandising or spinoffs of movies made during the marriage.  She claims that Wall Street 2 is a “spinoff”.  He claims that it is a “sequel”.  What a difference one word makes.  How would you rule if you were the judge?