• by Richard Whitman , Columnist, August 20, 2015

Apparently a deal was in the making that would have had Harvey Keitel appear in a series of commercial for brokerage firm E*Trade. The deal would have paid Keitel $1.5 million for his participation. The deal never happened. And Keitel, in June, sued E*Trade citing breach of contract.

The deal came about back in January when Ogilvy & Mather connected with Keitel's agency, ICM Partners. On behalf of Keitel, ICM's Karen Sellars, in a January 14 email, wrote, "I am very pleased that Harvey has agreed to do the three commercials for E*Trade. Per our conversations, can you please get us the long form contract as soon as possible so I can get it to your business affairs. Also, the city and days of shooting are equally important so I can run them by Harvey. And finally, please keep us in the loop in terms of the director. As I said, Harvey really wants a director who knows his work. Maybe someone like Ridley Scott, etc. and would like to have rehearsal time."

Now while the email says Keitel agreed to the offer, E*Trade claims the contract was never signed.

According to E*Trade, the offer was "contingent upon the results of the background check and, of course, coming to terms on script, compensation, etc." Arguing that the contract was never signed in the first place, E*Trade stated the final agreement was "not signed, contained blanks to be filled in later and invited Mr. Keitel to acknowledge his understanding of the 'proposed negotiations.'"

E*Trade further argued that the request to have a director like Ridley Scott participated amounted to an unaccepted counteroffer.

E*Trade has filed a counter suit asking the New York Supreme Court to dismiss Keitel's complaint .