In newsy news news, writers Joseph Balsamo and Peter Ciancarelli, who you may remember from… just this blog post, are suing FX because they claim that the network ripped off their idea with The League. Balsamo and Ciancarelli claim that they wrote a treatment for The Commissioner, and like The League, it was also about a group of friends who play fantasy football while behaving like men competing against each other naturally behave.
Make sure to properly secure your “Oh give me a f*cking break” faces for this one…
“Given the numerous and striking similarities between the two works, there can be no dispute that defendants Schaffer and/or FX had access to and copied protectable elements of the treatment,” the suit says. The suit then outlined 10 similarities between the two works. The plaintiffs filed Commissioner with the WGA back in 2006 and put the script online soon afterwards in an effort to attract attention. (Via Deadline)
“Ten Similarities Between The League and The Commissioner”? I must have missed that slideshow.
Now I’m no big city slicker fancy lawyer type, but as much as I love The League, it’s about as original as a knock-knock joke. Millions of bros and dudes play fantasy football, and we’re almost all in a league that features different types of guys who talk sh*t to each other, make side bets and generally piss each other off until they stop talking for months at a time or write each other absurd crybaby emails. We all do it, some of us *points to self* more than others.
But who cares about frivolous lawsuits by guys who had a stoner revelation moment of “Bro, we should make a TV show about a fantasy league”, when we have actual awesome news involving The League. Kristin Cavallari, AKA Mrs. Jay Cutler, filmed a guest spot for the show today.
“Big deal,” I’m sure someone will shout as he puts the finishing touches on a TV treatment about a guy who loves sandwiches and tits. But this has all the potential of being delightful, as Cavallari actually has a pretty decent sense of humor about her eventual husband, and I can only pray that this means that J-Cutty will even show up for his own cameo. Perhaps he’ll play Ruxin’s new pet cat or maybe he’ll deliver the greatest “Whatever, BRO” in TV history. Either way, color me excited.
If you’re keeping track at home, Cavallari joins Robert Griffin III, Ryan Fitzpatrick, and Jerry Jones as some of the NFL cameos we’ll see on The League this season. And if the show wanted to lock down “Biggest Balls Ever” status, they’d have Chad Johnson back, buying condoms in a convenience store.
(Banner via the still delightful Smokin’ Jay Cutler.)
