Writer's 'American Hustle' microwave complaint nuked
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You can't trust J. Law.
Or more precisely, anything Jennifer Lawrence's ditzy character Rosalyn Rosenfeld in the 2013 film American Hustle says, according to a California appeals court.
The California Second District Court of Appeal, Division Eight, in Los Angeles on Monday rejected a $1 million lawsuit filed by Paul Brodeur, a former staff writer at the New Yorker magazine who objected to a scene in the Oscar-nominated film in which Ms. Lawrence's character claims that microwaves take the nutrition out of food and attributes that information to an article by Mr. Brodeur. He accused the movie's producers and distributors of libeling, defaming, slandering and portraying him in a false light because he never made the quoted statement and in misquoting him “suggested to the movie audience that Mr. Brodeur made a scientifically unsupportable statement,” according to legal documents.
A trial court rejected the defendant's anti-SLAPP (strategic lawsuit against public participation) motion to dismiss the case, prompting the appeal, which was supported by free speech groups and media organizations such as CBS Broadcasting Inc., Hearst Corp. and the New York Times Co.
In overturning the trial court's denial of the motion to strike, the appeals court stated that “the general tenor of American Hustle, the entirely farcical nature of the 'science oven' scene, and the ditzy nature of the character uttering the allegedly defamatory statement, all indicate that an audience would not expect anything Rosalyn says to reflect objective fact.” Therefore, Mr. Brodeur failed to show a probability of prevailing on his defamation and related claims, according to the court.
The appeals court loss will be costly for Mr. Brodeur because the court directed the trial court to enter a new order granting the motion and awarding the defendants their attorney fees and costs.
Guess it doesn't pay to be a ditz.
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One line, $1 million — that’s the going rate for Paul Brodeur, a science journalist and staff writer at The New Yorker for almost 40 years, who claims the 2013 hit film “American Hustle” incorrectly attributed to him a comment about, of all things, microwave cooking.
