The Hollywood Reporter said an individual has filed a case in a New York federal court against the producers of the Oscar-nominated Martin Scorsese film "The Wolf of Wall Street." Andrew Greene said the film had portrayed him differently in real life, and that the portrayal by actor P.J. Byrne of Nicky "Rugrat" Koskoff had casted him in a bad light.
Part of the lawsuit read, "The motion picture contains various scenes wherein Mr. Greene's character is portrayed as a criminal, drug user, degenerate, depraved, and/or devoid of any morality or ethics. In one scene, Mr. Greene's character is depicted shaving a woman's head after Jordan Belfort's character states the woman was offered ten-thousand dollars."
"The Wolf of Wall Street" was inspired by a memoir of Jordan Belmont, a former trader of Stratton Oakmont. Greene insisted the legality of his claim as Belmont used his legal name in the memoir. THR said the film depicted the real-life criminality of Belmont while at the firm, which eventually led him to serve 22 months in prison.
Greene argued that the image of his character in the film had permanently damaged him, and have asserted a New York civil rights law which is analogous to a publicity rights statute, THR added. According to Cornell University Law School, the right to publicity prohibits individuals or entities to use an individual's name, likeness or other aspects recognizable to an individual's persona for commercial purposes.
When asked by the online news site for comment, Paramount had referred the questions to producer Red Granite, who did not respond immediately to comment on Greene's lawsuit.
THR said that the right to publicity has been tested in several, high-profile cases. Cases that asserted publicity rights included an advertisement that used civil rights icon Rosa Parks in a song by hip-hop group Outkast, and Gewn Stefani's legal action against the use of her likeness by a video game maker who featured her as an avatar while singing a song about sleeping with sex workers, THR said.
