Films Can Use Real Names, Likenesses, State High Court Rules

The California Supreme Court has given filmmakers the freedom to use the name or likeness of a real person in their movies with little fear of being sued.

The high court on Wednesday reinstated a state Court of Appeal decision dismissing a suit by a man who alleged that the makers of the 1993 film "The Sandlot" used his name and personality for a leading character in the film.

The appellate court in Los Angeles found there was only a general resemblance between the man, Michael Polydoros, and the character. As long as the filmmakers do not defame him or intrude on his personal life, the court said that Polydoros had no case.

The state Supreme Court refused to take up the man's appeal, leaving the appellate court ruling in effect throughout the state.

The case has drawn wide attention, balancing the privacy rights of ordinary individuals with the constitutional protections for artistic work by movie makers.

The high court's action "should give motion picture and television companies a great deal of comfort when they inadvertently use someone's name or personal character traits in what is clearly a fictional piece," said Robert Wyman, a Century City attorney who teamed with partner Bruce Isaacs to represent 20th Century Fox, the producer and distributor of the film.

Tom Brackey, the Los Angeles attorney for Polydoros, said the court makes an unfair distinction between celebrities and ordinary people.

Celebrities enjoy a right of publicity that prevents others from using their name or likeness. But the appellate court found that people who are not celebrities do not have the same protection because their names and likenesses are not considered to be as commercially valuable.

"They've come out to say that the First Amendment affords absolute protection in the context of fiction" for filmmakers, Mackey said.

Polydoros, who grew up in the San Fernando Valley, was a classmate of David Mickey Evans, the author and director of "The Sandlot."

The film is a comedy about a group of boys growing up in the San Fernando Valley. One of the boys is named Michael Palledorous, whose nickname is "Squints." The character is nerdy, bespectacled and brash. Polydoros, who distributes films to movie theaters, sued in March 1994 for commercial misappropriation, invasion of privacy, negligence and defamation.

Polydoros argued that "Squints" was a derogatory nickname that caused him embarrassment and humiliation.

A trial judge threw out the suit in 1996, and a state appeals court upheld that decision a year later.

While there may be "rudimentary similarities" between Polydoros and the "Squints" character, Justice Roger Boren said there were distinct differences between the two, including the fact that Polydoros is 40 years old and the character is a 10-year-old boy.

"There is no question that 'The Sandlot' is a fanciful work of fiction and imagination," Boren said.

"There is no law providing relief for defamation by a fictional work which does not portray the plaintiff at all," the justice concluded.