Shots fired!
Eva Longoria’s tequila brand is facing a potential hangover in the form of a $2 million lawsuit filed by a company co-founded by Jack Brinkley-Cook, 30, the son of supermodel Christie Brinkley.
Jack’s company, Rove — which provides short distance rides in high-end marketplaces — is suing Longoria’s Casa Del Sol tequila, alleging in court papers that the brand failed to pay for an ad campaign to run on Rove cars in swanky locales like the Hamptons, Palm Beach, Fla., and Aspen, Colo.
According to the suit, the tequila brand’s most “prominent backers include such high visibility individuals as tennis legends Serena Williams and Garbiñe Muguruza, fashion designer and actress Kathy Hilton, NBA basketball star Kyle Kuzma and fashion model Brooks Nader.”
(Longoria — who’s called a Casa Del Sol co-founder on the liquor brand’s website and in it’s press releases — is not named as a defendant. She does not have a formal management role in the company, we’re told.)
Rove is also owned by another Hamptons fixture, Gianpaolo de Felice, who runs the popular Sag Harbor restaurant Tutto Il Giorno and is married to designer Donna Karan’s daughter, Gabby.
According to the legal docs filed in New York’s Eastern District in October, Casa Del Sol inked a multi-year deal to advertise on Rove’s fleet of cars, targeting the high-end party set in seasonal hotspots.
Rove claims Longoria’s tequila brand failed to pay for the work, despite promises, all while throwing parties and events.
“Despite Casa Del Sol’s repeated assurances to Rove that those payments would be forthcoming,” reads the suit, “Casa Del Sol was, at the same time, spending lavishly on extravagant promotional junkets, parties and other events — Casa Del Sol ultimately failed and refused to pay.”
The tequila brand rented a boutique hotel in Aspen in 2023, hosting VIPs like Nader, chef Mario Carbone, music producer and celeb DJ Diplo and influencers Danielle Bernstein and Rocky Barnes.
The brand also rented a mansion for TikTok star Alix Earle and her friends in the Hamptons in 2023.
In 2022, the brand had rented a $25 million oceanfront manse in the Hamptons over Memorial Day weekend, holding parties that drew socialites and influencers.
The initiative was capped off with a performance by Paris Jackson at Stephen Talkhouse.
In 2022, the brand was also in Miami for Art Basel, throwing a yacht party with Vogue and another with designer and reality star Rebecca Minkoff.
After Casa Del Sol allegedly failed to pay Rove, court papers say, it stopped the campaigns.
Legal papers allege the brand had “overdue November and December 2023 payments, and it likewise failed to pay Rove the January 1, 2024 installment payments due under those Agreements. As such, Rove was compelled, in January of 2024, to suspend its operations.”
According to the lawsuit, Rove “incurred significant costs and expenses in connection with the Agreements.”
Rove alleges it had “substantial costs,” including “the unused vehicles it had procured, prepared with advertising materials and shipped to Florida and Colorado; the numerous drivers and other staff it had hired; and the significant technical and logistical infrastructure it had put in place for the advertising campaigns.”
The “Desperate Housewives” star helped launch Casa Del Sol in 2021.
Casa Del Sol’s lawyer, Andrew Bochner, told Page Six in a statement: “The Company is aware of the lawsuit and related allegations regarding financial improprieties, as well as the timing of such actions. The Company had already commenced an investigation, and is currently reviewing these matters with the utmost seriousness it deserves. We are exploring all available options, and intend to respond through the appropriate channels.”
Reps for Rove and Longoria did not get back to us.
