The lawsuit (read here in full) continues:
“In a voice-over, Jordan Belfort’s character states Plaintiffs character was arrested in Miami along with a Swiss banker who plaintiff supposedly knew from law school, which precipitated Jordan Belfort’s arrest. Another voice-over claims Mr. Greene’s character set up a meeting with that Swiss banker that could launder money. Mr. Greene’s character is later seen accompanying Jordan Belfort to a meeting in Switzerland for the purposes of laundering money. Mr. Greene’s character is shown doing cocaine on company premises during business hours in another scene. The motion picture included other scenes depicting Mr. Greene’s character in a reckless and depraved manner, including more than one scene wherein his character is depicted having sexual relations with a prostitute.”
Greene says that he didn’t consent to his image, likeness and characterization in Wolf of Wall Street. He’s asserting a claim based upon a New York civil rights law that’s analogous to a publicity rights statute. He’s also claiming the movie contains libelous statements that “permanently damaged” him by portraying him as a “criminal and drug user with misogynistic tendencies.”
The lawsuit figures to spark the latest battle testing the boundary between publicity rights and the First Amendment. Prior cases include an advertisement about a futuristic Wheel of Fortune that evoked Vanna White, the hip-hop group Outkast’s use of civil rights icon Rosa Parks in a song and Gwen Stefani‘s lawsuit over a video game that featured her as an avatar singing about sleeping with prostitutes. The Supreme Court has tackled the issue once — a 1978 decision concerning a man whose human cannonball act was featured on television.
The Wolf of Wall Street dramatized some real-life events, but even fictional works have sparked libel claims. These have met with mixed success. See, for example, the trial over a sexually promiscuous alcoholic character in the best-selling novel The Red Hat Club, or the appellate ruling over a hard-drinking, bondage-loving real estate agent on CBS crime drama CSI.
Perhaps the legal dispute most closely resembling Greene’s is the one brought by a former Iraqi soldier who claimed to be the inspiration behind the Oscar-winning film The Hurt Locker. Similarly, that lawsuit also came just days before the Academy Awards and alleged publicity rights violations and defamation. The lawsuit was dismissed by a judge on First Amendment grounds and is now pending before the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals.
Paramount referred questions to Red Granite, which didn’t immediately comment on the lawsuit.
Article Appeared @http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/thr-esq/wolf-wall-street-studio-sued-681541