Two Los Angeles real estate agents have cleared an important hurdle in their $6 million “libel-in-fiction” lawsuit alleging a writer for “CSI: Crime Scene Investigation” misused their identities for an episode of the hit show.
The episode, which was broadcast in February, featured the characters of Scott and Melinda Tucker, a pair of hedonistic married realtors involved in fraud and possibly murder. The original version of the script written by Sarah Goldfinger used the names of Scott and Melinda Tamkin, real-life married realtors who had met Goldfinger while representing the owners of a house she was interested in buying.
In May, the Tamkins -- aggrieved at having their good names allegedly associated with the Tuckers' "reckless lifestyle of sexual bondage, pornography, drunkenness, marital discord, depression, financial straits, and possibly even murder” -- sued CBS and the producers of CSI, claiming Goldfinger falsely portrayed them as “hedonistic, selfish and deviant.”
Because of First Amendment protections, libel-in-fiction suits have generally not fared well in the courts. And CBS filed a motion to dismiss the Tamkins' case under a California free-speech law.
But a Los Angeles Superior Court judge has denied the motion, ruling CBS and Jerry Bruckheimer Television had not shown that the alleged misuse of the Tamkins' identities was “in connection with a public issue or an issue of public interest.” He relied on an earlier case in which an appeals court said a man could sue the producers of the Ben Stiller movie “Reality Bites” for portraying him as a “rebellious slacker.” That case was settled in January.
The Tamkins' suit can now proceed to depositions and other discovery.
On Nov. 18, a jury in Georgia found the author of the best-selling novel “The Red Hat Club” libeled a woman she knew by using her identity for the character of an “alcoholic slut” but awarded the plaintiff only $100,000 in damages.
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