Lindsay Lohan Is Reportedly Asking Her Lawyers About Going After GTA5 For Non-Portrayal

from the buckets-of-crazy dept

Lindsay Lohan, everyone's favorite train-wreck, sure seems to come up in the world of intellectual property an awful lot. I'm not sure if this is because she has some over-inflated sense of entitlement, or if she's just the devil-incarnate here to entertain me personally, but she's gotten angry about being mocked in music, angry about a talking baby being named Lindsay (and being a "milkaholic"), and angry at the invention of the video camera for showing her stealing stuff that didn't belong to her.

But now reports are that she's looking to step up her game by going after Grand Theft Auto 5 over their portrayal of her, except that (as with the E-Trade babies) it wasn't a portrayal of her at all. Let's take her reported claims to her lawyers in order:
-- The video game cover shows a woman holding a cellphone who looks Lindsay-ish. There's been debate over whether it looks more like Kate Upton or Shelby Welinder.
No, there's no debate. Shelby Welinder was hired by Rockstar Games to serve as the game cover's woman. Next.
-- Part of the game features a mission where a Lindsay Lohan look-alike asks the player to take her home and escape the paparazzi.
If you've played the game, and I have, and you played the paparazzi missions and thought, "holy balls, they're making fun of Lindsay Lohan!", then you need severe psychiatric care. The character in question, Lacey Jonas, is an obvious composite character. The closest thing to referencing Lohan is that Lacey Jonas is famous and once starred in a "cheerleader competition" movie. Sounds like Lohan, except that all the other facts about the character don't and the character doesn't look like Lohan, which sort of kills the whole "they stole my likeness" claim. As does claiming you were also used for a completely different character.
Another part of the game shows another Lindsay-like character at a hotel resembling the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood -- a place Lindsay not only frequents but once lived at -- and the mission is to photograph her having sex on camera.
We've got more problems, in that this completely different character, Poppy Mitchell, is a recurring character in the series. While that wiki states that this character might be a parody of Lohan, it certainly isn't much of a likeness beyond the character having been convicted of drunken driving.

And all of this is a bit beside the point. Even if each and every one of these characters were somehow a lifting or reference to Lindsay Lohan, it ought to be covered under the same blanket of parody that covers pretty much everything else in GTA5, given that the entire setting is a mocking look at Los Angeles. And I'm not sure what Lohan's legal team is planning on doing with her request to look into all of this, but continuing with the claim that video game characters with the personality traits of fornicating in public, drinking and driving, and being washed up movie stars probably isn't something she should be loudly pointing to as representing her.
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Filed Under: grand theft auto, gta 5, lindsay lohan, publicity rights


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  1. icon
    Deranged Poster (profile), 3 Dec 2013 @ 1:46pm

    Lindsay Who?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2013 @ 1:51pm

    she obviously needs more money to pay for the next session of therapy she probably needs drastically. or maybe she's just bored with having no shops to lift or moans to utter?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    Richard (profile), 3 Dec 2013 @ 1:52pm

    Let it go...

    ...dude - this is bombing fish in a bucket.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2013 @ 1:54pm

    I thought she was terrific in that movie she didn't appear in.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2013 @ 1:58pm

    Sounds like she's asking for it....

    I wouldn't be surprised if they then created a parody character JUST BECAUSE in the next version released.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. identicon
    Daniel, 3 Dec 2013 @ 1:59pm

    GTA5

    WHINE! WHINEY WHINE WHINE WHINE!! WHINE SOME MORE!!!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    Chris-Mouse (profile), 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:10pm

    Putting the Streisand Effect to use?

    I tend to suspect that the main reason Lindsay Lohan does this sort of thing is because the Streisand Effect is about the only way she can get anyone to pay attention to her.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. identicon
    Trevor, 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:12pm

    LINSAY LOHAAAN

    Don't you get it? Her legal team is flipping the script on everyone, and pulling a Streisand Effect ON HER SELF.

    When was the last time you heard about Lindsay Lohan? A month or two ago when she guest hosted Chelsie Lately? What has she done since? I'm guessing she sat down and played some GTAV and had an epiphany.

    Apparently, she is convinced that bad publicity is good publicity, because now she's back in the news, and we all "care" again.

    Also, I finished the story mode and am elbows deep in GTAV: Online. I think those characters were more of a parody of celebrity in general, and not just one person. They drew the best material from the best (worst) celebrities, and made those characters. Rockstar has a knack for social commentary.

    Also, I fully expect a character named Linda Logan, who happens to be a washed up, drugged out former actress bouncing from D-list reality shows to make an appearance in the next GTA installment. Rockstar, you have your target. Get to it!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:15pm

    Seeking Lawsuit by ego-hurt, whad'ya know. I wonder if she hates herself so much she just doesn't want to see even the remote similarities of her in media, unaware of the fact she's a dime-a-dozens in America in terms of lack of responsibility and a horrible lifestyle of indulgence.

    Hollywood: where ambition and responsibility go to atrophy into a movie prop/plot device.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. identicon
    Androgynous Cowherd, 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:22pm

    The duck that quacks loudest...

    And I'm not sure what Lohan's legal team is planning on doing with her request to look into all of this, but continuing with the claim that video game characters with the personality traits of fornicating in public, drinking and driving, and being washed up movie stars probably isn't something she should be loudly pointing to as representing her.


    There's an old adage: "The duck that quacks the loudest is the one that got shot." In this instance, Rockstar Games fired their parodic shot ... and guess who quacked the loudest?

    Lindsay not only has no legal case, she is more or less admitting to being the sort of person the game makers are mocking. And if she pursues this to the point of filing anything with a court, she'll have the fun of being personally introduced to the Streisand Effect.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. icon
    Zakida Paul (profile), 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:27pm

    All characters and events portrayed in this game are fictional. Any resemblance to real life is coincidental.

    Isn't that on all fictional works these days?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. identicon
    Ron Burgundy, 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:37pm

    Today's News headlines

    in the news today, Lindsay Lohan - actress/slut/drug abuser/mental case sued the makers of Cheerios for having a spoon that she likes in a commercial. Her lawyer, Gloria Allshit, stated, "it's a travesty of justice when my client, Lindsay Lohan, is abused by mega-corporations and mocked for her mental issues."

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:38pm

    in other news some forgotten wench tries to strap herself to new video game, if you listen closely you will hear the familiar sound of no one caring....

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. icon
    Rapnel (profile), 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:43pm

    Holy Crap!

    I see Lohan's everywhere!

    link to this | view in thread ]

  15. icon
    Rapnel (profile), 3 Dec 2013 @ 2:47pm

    Re:

    I'm not sure about all fictional wors but I think it has been amended to the fine print of the Constitution.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  16. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2013 @ 3:58pm

    Rockstar displays a generic garment and Lindsay claims it cut to her fit. She really is her own worst enemy, isn't she?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  17. icon
    sophisticatedjanedoe (profile), 3 Dec 2013 @ 4:30pm

    Lindsey
    Is
    Butthurt
    Ergo
    Litigious

    link to this | view in thread ]

  18. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 3 Dec 2013 @ 7:23pm

    So people want to be famous without hassle?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  19. icon
    G Thompson (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 12:01am

    I'm thinking that maybe she's jealous that she wasn't portrayed as a scooter buddy of Trevor's.


    Even Trevor wouldn't stick it in Lindsay, though maybe Wade would though ;)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  20. icon
    Mega1987 (profile), 4 Dec 2013 @ 1:27am

    it's gonna spread.

    The kicker: Lindsay will be seeing alot of those GTAV pick referring to her aslot more frequently due to the fact she actually pointed the issue.

    the game producer might try to alter the game a bit...

    but those fans of GTA... expect THEM to hit the photoshop app, mod a pic from GTA into inserting Lindsay then spreading the photoshopped image thou out the net.!!!

    poor Girl...

    She'll be swamped with those fan-made image that actually shows there "wild" side of things... hahaha

    link to this | view in thread ]

  21. identicon
    Crazy Canuck, 4 Dec 2013 @ 8:45am

    Everyone needs to make a living...

    Hey now, be nice to Lindsay. How else do you expect her to support herself? With her talent? =P

    link to this | view in thread ]

  22. identicon
    Rekrul, 5 Dec 2013 @ 4:40am

    Someone refresh my memory please; What cheerleading competition movie was Lindsay Lohan in?

    link to this | view in thread ]

  23. icon
    John Fenderson (profile), 5 Dec 2013 @ 11:16am

    Re:

    Lindsey Lohan was in a movie? I though she was just famous for being a nutcase.

    link to this | view in thread ]


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