A few days ago, a judge threw out a suit by an EOD soldier against the makers of The Hurt Locker, saying that the film version of the guy was different enough to be “transformative,” and refuting the guy’s assertion that the film had somehow slandered his reputation. But since Hurt Locker writer Mark Boal had been embedded with the plaintiff’s unit (hehehehe…), the suit at least made sense. Today, we learned of Michael Alan Rubin, a California man who is suing the makers of The Hangover II, who he’s never met, saying they stole his life story. Because that makes sense. What kind of lawyer would even take this case?
Rubin is representing himself in the case…
Ahh, it’s all becoming clear…
According Rubin’s federal lawsuit, filed last week in Calfornia, he married a Japanese woman named Tamayo in 2007 in Japan. Together, the couple honeymooned in Thailand and India where differences started arising over Rubin’s financial condition. During the honeymoon trip, Tamayo refused to share a hotel room with the luckless plaintiff.
In India, Rubin says he met a Bollywood producer who gave him work as a leading actor on several films. At which point, Rubin wanted to turn his experience with Tamayo into a feature film, so he wrote a script entitled Mickey and Kirin and allegedly deposited a copy with the Writers Guild of America. He later heard from a Hollywood friend about Hangover II, the story of some Asian misadventures by Americans on the road to a wedding.
“The production of Hangover 2 is not a complete ‘literary’ or ‘artistic’ works of the Hangover Defendants as credited in Hangover 2,” says the complaint. “In fact, the production of Hangover 2 was a result of infringement of the Plaintiff’s treatment ‘Mickey and Kirin’ and exploitation of the private real life of Plaintiff in an insulting manner.” [THR]
“First they stole my life story verbatim! Then they insulted me by changing all of the events and details! And your honor, may it please the court, I’d like to ask that the jurors cover their heads in tinfoil to keep from being influenced by my neighbor’s parrot, who’s always had it in for me, and can change people’s thoughts. He’s very sneaky.”
Rubin is suing for copyright infringement, misappropriation of his publicity rights, and defamation. On the latter claim, he believes the filmmakers suggested the inference that he was under the influence of drugs when he ditched his girlfriend and proposed to a male-to-female transexual prostitute. [THR]
That is a magnificently convoluted sentence, but if I’m reading that correctly, this guy resents the idea that the filmmakers suggested he was on drugs when he tried to marry a tranny — the last part of which, presumably, actually happened. “Your honor, I was stone-cold sober when I married that she-male! I’m willing to take a polygraph!”
Also, if he thinks Hangover II stole his life story, shouldn’t he be suing Hangover I (and a Simpson’s episode)? Anyway, I guess it’s cool that we live in such a wonderful free land where anyone can sue anyone else, even if they’re completely batsh*t insane and their complaint obviously based on delusion. Everyone deserves their day in court. I’d just ask that in cases such as these, the plaintiff be required to wear a foam cowboy hat that says “PLAINTIFF” and the judge’s gavel be replaced with a banana that he pounds against a whoopie cushion.
(*throws cat a jurors*)
SUSTAINED!
(*fart sound*)