Lindsay Lohan said Grand Theft Auto based Lacey Jonas off of her. Photo courtesy of CNN.
Summary: After years of fighting in court, Lindsay Lohan was officially told a Grand Theft Auto V character did not look like her.
For almost four years, Lindsay Lohan has been in a legal battle with the makers of Grand Theft Auto V. The actress and Lawyer.com spokesperson said that they had used her likeness without her permission to create a character called Lacey Jonas, and she was suing for damages.
Lohan said that Lacey Jonas’ character was blonde, wore a red bikini, and famously threw up a peace sign, and Lohan said it was clear that the game had misappropriated her “portrait,” “voice,” and “persona.” However, a New York court disagreed. On Thursday, it stated that Lacey was a generic 20-something Hollywood girl who looked nothing like Lohan.
The attorney for the Grand Theft Auto V game makers, Jeremy Feigelson, said that Lohan was trying to argue that she “owns the peace sign” but he cheekily added that, “I think Winston Churchill [who used the gesture as a symbol of victory] would be surprised to hear that.”
Lohan was suing for invasion of privacy, but the court said that Grand Theft Auto’s character was generic. The court said that Lacey may constitute a “portrait” under New York civil rights law but that the artistic rendering was “satirical” and “not reasonably identifiable.”
For years, Lohan has pursued this case as her once rising star has diminished in Hollywood due to her drug use and personal problems. In the Grand Theft Auto game makers’ dismissal, they stated that she had a history of “misusing the legal system.”
Interestingly enough, Lohan’s famed legal troubles got her a corporate deal with Lawyer.com, who hired her to be their spokesperson. This month, they released her first ad for the website, which helps clients find attorneys, and Lohan made light of her arrests and litigiousness.
“When Lawyer.com first reached out to me, I was confused and a little scared because I thought I was in trouble,” Lohan said. “But when they asked me to be their spokesperson, I was intrigued.”
For instance, in 2010, Lohan sued E-Trade over a Super Bowl ad that featured a “milkaholic” baby named Lindsay. Lohan wanted $100 million, and the two parties settled the case outside of court.
Lohan also sued Fox News for making fun of her alleged cocaine use and rapper Pitbull for giving her a shout-out in his song “Feel This Moment.” Pitbull’s lyrics stated: “So, I’m tip-toein’, to keep flowin’, I got it locked up, like Lindsay Lohan,” and Lohan was not able to win her cases against the conservative news network or the entertainer.
Thursday’s ruling was an appeal of a 2016 judgment against Lohan. In preparation for this appeal, numerous media organizations asked the court to reject the case in order to protect the First Amendment and artists’ rights to create parodies or works loosely based on real people, according to Rolling Stone.
Mob Wives star Karen Gravano had also sued Rockstar Games for allegedly depicting her, and that case was rejected as well.
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