I’m not sure if this qualifies as “identity theft” or violating the “right of publicity”:
The View cohost Elisabeth Hasselbeck is fuming mad over an episode of Law & Order: Special Victims Unit in which a character, whose name is very close to her own, is raped and killed, she said on Tuesday.“Last week Law & Order: SVU had an episode where a 30-year-old woman in New York City is raped twice and then murdered – and her name is Elizabeth Hassenback,” Hasselbeck, 29, said on The View. “I found this a little disturbing.”
Hasselbeck called an SVU producer to berate the show’s “socially irresponsible” character-naming policies.
An SVU spokesman told People Magazine that, “all names have to be cleared through legal.”
It would be impossible for any fictional television show–or any work of fiction for that matter–to exist if authors could only use names that weren’t otherwise in use. Maybe Hasselbeck’s argument is that only “celebrity” names like hers should be off-limits. Is it socially “responsible” to only recycle the names of us little people?
Matt Groening, the creator of The Simpsons, once said that after the show had been on the air for some time, he learned of an actual Homer Simpson who worked in a nuclear power plant. Was Groening being “socially irresponsible” by continuing to use this man’s name for his bufoonish, accident-prone cartoon character? (Incidentally, a later Simpsons episode actually has Homer becoming enraged by a bufoonish, accident-prone fictional television character with his name.)
Perhaps the Federal Trade Commission can establish a “Do Not Name” registry for every individual who wants their name off-limits to shameless Hollywood writers.
Finally, to add insult to faux-injury, the episode featuring Ms. Hasselbeck’s doppelganger may itself have been plagiarized from another work of fiction.
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I think the problem is that the show has a “ripped from the headlines” writing style, which combined with the fact that the character was nearly the same age as the real person (who has reported being stalked in the past) makes the defense that this was pure coincidence seem less plausible.
As to what real harm is done, I can’t really imagine…
I have a kicker in the NFL and a challenger for a Congress seat with my name. One of them was on Colbert, I plan on suing.
-John Hall
You got it easy.. I googled myself one day (we’ve all done it) and I shared my name with a gay porn star!
You got it easy.. I googled myself one day (we’ve all done it) and I share my name with a gay porn star!
Wait until she hears about the story where an “Elisabeth Hasselbeck” is portrayed as some crazy oversensitive bitch who feels oppressed by a TV program that by chance had a character having her name.
This is why I legally changed my name to mother#$%#ing #%$#-sucking %#$#. I figured no TV show would dare give a character that name & I’d be safe. But then one day I was watching Deadwood & it seemed like every character had my name.
haha. funny, xteve
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