“American Hustle” is a popular movie produced and distributed by ColumbiaPictures, Atlas Entertainment and Annapurna Pictures. The flick was inspired by
the FBI’s two-year ABSCAM operation of investigating public corruption.
The real Paul Brodeur, a science journalist who was a staff writer at The New Yorker for nearly 40 years, was not amused. Although he has written books such as The Zapping of America (which warns about the dangers of microwave radiation), he has never stated that microwaves take nutrition out of food. He therefore filed a lawsuit at the Los Angeles Superior Court.
In the lawsuit, Brodeur argues that the statement made about him in the movie causes him damage since that statement is “scientifically unsupportable.” He argues that the filmmakers therefore damaged his reputation since “The scene from the movie American Hustle where the defamatory statement was made is highly offensive to a reasonable person.”
Brodeur states that he therefore was the victim of libel, defamation, slander and false light. He seeks damages to to amount of $1 M.
Although it seems to be a clear win for Brodeur, it might be a bit more complicated. The American Hustle filmmakers purposefully maintained that the movie was loosely based on true events. The movie’s opening credits state that “some of this actually happened.” A successful libel claim can show that the defendants made a statement in their movie as being true although they know it’s false.
Paying Brodeur would not be a problem; the movie grossed more than $150 million in the US alone. But up till now, defendants have not tried to settle. Atlas has declined to comment, and Annapurna and Columbia have not responded at all. It looks like parties will slug it out in court.
(Image courtesy of Francois Duhamel - Sony Pictures/AP)
