Lindsay Lohan’s legal team attempted to step its game up this week, submitting a much larger legal complaint against Take-Two Interactive over the portrayal of Lacey Jonas in Grand Theft Auto Five. The Hollywood Reporter has a copy of the entire new legal complaint, which has gone from 10 pages to a whopping 67. Essentially, Lohan’s camp alleges that the developers and Take-Two Interactive used her image without approval or authorization in the creation of the Lacey Jonas character in the game. The suit has become even more ridiculous and frivolous.
A great chunk of the revised complaint features comparison pictures of Lohan and the Jonas character on the game disc, cover and various GTA V merchandise. In the promotional artwork, the Jonas character looks like a generic blonde bombshell in a bikini, holding up a peace sign. Lo and behold, Lohan’s legal team produced numerous pictures of her holding up a peace sign. Clearly, the game developers saw that as Lohan’s trademark pose and copied her without permission. The previous sentence conveys intended sarcasm in case you did not notice. Of course, there is even a picture of Lohan in a bikini with blonde hair and holding up a peace sign.
Sorry, but there are no red flags with any of this artwork. In all the artwork, the Jonas character looks like a generic blonde. There is nothing that is specifically Lohan-centric about her. I have seen tons of actresses and celebrities pose for pictures with the peace sign. Lohan cannot hold copyright over that pose or trademark.
Exhibit B-7 of the complaint sites a Time Magazine article written by Sarah Miller taking the stance that Lohan should win the lawsuit. Miller cites dialogue from the actual game to explain why the Jonas character is inspired by Lohan. If you look at all the dialogue Miller cites in her article, there is not a single one that can actually be attributed to Lohan. Miller believes the exasperated tone and speech pattern is specifically based on Lohan. All of the examples she cites can be attributed to any number of vapid, struggling young actresses who have had a stark fall from grace. Lohan does not own the caricature or image of generic, vapid, drug-addicted and troubled young actresses.
However, even if there is a slim chance that a judge believes the Jonas character is based on Lohan, use of the character is protected by parody law under the First Amendment. Hopefully, any court selected to hear this case will laugh it out of court and dismiss it. The idea of this lawsuit is almost as absurd as when Club Med sued 20th Century Fox over the title of the comedy, Club Dread. That case was promptly dismissed, and so should this one.
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