You can’t blame a guy for trying, although you can make him pay the legal fees.
Goodfellas actor Frank Sivero filed, and lost, a lawsuit against 20th Century Fox after claims that The Simpsons based a character’s likeness on him without his permission.
Sivero claimed The Simpsons character Louie, Fat Tony’s henchman, was based on his character Frankie Carbone from Goodfellas.
The actor demanded a ridiculous amount of money for (allegedly) being imitated in the TV show.
He was looking for $250 million in compensation. $250 million.
Broken down, that is $10.9 million for every year he had known about the character before deciding to sue.
The judge was not as convinced as Sivero’s lawyers that the actor had a case , asking: “If I was a teenage girl and I had a crush on your client, would I be happy with a poster of this character Louie?”
A compelling argument.
“Even if Mr. Sivero’s face was on this, as long as it is parody you can’t win,” he concluded, and that was that.
Sivero missed out on his big payday and The Simpsons and Louie get a stay of execution.
