The lawsuit that Lindsay Lohan filed against Take-Two Interactive, publisher of the popular Grand Theft Auto games, has officially crashed and burned harder than Michael De Santa ever did. Back in March, a judge had ruled Lohan could proceed with her claims that her likeness was blatantly stolen for the character of Lacey Jonas in Grand Theft Auto, but Thursday, a New York state appellate court directed a trial court to dismiss her lawsuit on the grounds that Take-Two and Rockstar Games did not rip Lohan’s image for the game.
The court considered both Lohan and a similar lawsuit filed by ex-Mob Wives star Karen Gravano at the same time. Gravano had filed a $40 million complaint centered around the character of “Andrea Bottino,” whom she believed to share far too similar paths in life as herself, as well as phrases and vocabulary. The court found that the game had never used either of Gravano or Lohan’s names, likeness, or anything else that would form a connection between itself and the two celebrities.
“Both Gravano’s and Lohan’s respective causes of action under Civil Rights Law § 51 must fail because defendants did not use [plaintiffs’] name, portrait, or picture,” states today’s opinion. “Despite Gravano’s contention that the video game depicts her, defendants never referred to Gravano by name or used her actual name in the video game, never used Gravano herself as an actor for the video game, and never used a photograph of her. As to Lohan’s claim that an avatar in the video game is she and that her image is used in various images, defendants also never referred to Lohan by name or used her actual name in the video game, never used Lohan herself as an actor for the video game, and never used a photograph of Lohan.”
( Via Billboard)