It's not a news link if the news is total fluff.

October 9, 2002 9:16 PM

It's not a news link if the news is total fluff. For your consideration: a suit drawn on stealing the idea to REMAKE a film, then a suit drawn over who saw a SAMPLE first. The debate! Which outweighs, legal chicanery or creative bankruptcy?
posted by damehex (10 comments total)

The same thing happened in the 60s (I think) about the Magnificent Seven. When Kurosawa's Seven Samurai came out, several people hopped on the idea of making it into a Western, and many toes were stepped on to get the final film finished. It was worth it, in my opinion. Both the Kurosawa original and the cowboy remake were fine, fine films.
posted by oissubke at 9:56 PM on October 9, 2002

it's amazing they're jockeying for credit for (a) such a bad idea, and (b) something that's clearly going to tank at the box office.
posted by donkeyschlong at 10:10 PM on October 9, 2002

Being a fan of hip hop producers (dj premier, el-p, dr dre) it is very rough when at the same time you find most sampling to be morally offensive. Generally, sampling melodies or vocals without explicit permission of the artist first is analogus to stealing souls with cameras. If this was blues singer who died way before the advent of sampling I would care. But its Tupac, live by the sword, die by the sword.
posted by xpoint at 10:12 PM on October 9, 2002

My favorite quote from the Toni Braxton bit below . . .

I'm not hating on Beyoncé or anything, but I have kids to feed and this is taking money out of their college funds.

I know that the music business is not the millionaire factory that it's always been cracked up to be, but doncha think that one of the biggest r&b stars of the '90's, had she been more careful with her money, would have had herself nicely provided for by now?

For the record, I have always said that if Toni needs a place to stay for a while, my doors are always open . . . *mee-yow!*
posted by mikrophon at 6:33 AM on October 10, 2002

"You stole my idea to profit from someone else's work!"

"No, you stole my idea to display that I have no creative talent and must use another's work to make people think I have talent!"


Former 3LW member Naturi Naughton … is suing the group and its management, claiming she was forced out in August because she was not "ghetto enough.

same thing happens to me all the time. yo.
posted by tolkhan at 7:35 AM on October 10, 2002

Apparently stealing people's ideas for stuff is all the rage these days:

Tiffani-amber Thiessen has accused Sarah Michelle Gellar of stealing her wedding plans. According to pals of the Beverly Hills 90210 star, Gellar's September wedding to actor Freddie Prinze Jr. was an exact copy of Thiessen's cancelled nuptials with party guru Jeffrey Best. A source says, "Stars get a lot of money for the photos, interviews, whatever, but the weddings have to be original. When she (Thiessen) saw Gellar's wedding photos she flipped. It was her wedding. It made the monetary value of her wedding nothing."

via IMDB
posted by O9scar at 8:51 AM on October 10, 2002

I thought the " not ghetto enough" lawsuit was the best bit of news in the column. I want to see them in court arguing about who is the ghettoest of them all. She was probably asking too many questions about the shitty contract she signed and aggravating her producers/handlers.
posted by monkeyman at 9:49 AM on October 10, 2002

It made the monetary value of her wedding nothing.

which is, coincidentally, the monetary value of a wedding that didn't happen.
posted by tolkhan at 2:24 PM on October 10, 2002

If they stole that bit from anyone other than Krusty or Steve Allen...
posted by davidmsc at 5:30 PM on October 10, 2002

Gellar's September wedding to actor Freddie Prinze Jr. was an exact copy of Thiessen's cancelled nuptials with party guru Jeffrey Best.

Wait -- how can it be an exact copy if two different people were married? I bet some of the guests were different, too.
posted by kindall at 5:41 PM on October 10, 2002