Writer's beware

[Guest guest]

This should be an interesting case.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,521426,00.html?test=latestnews

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit Friday against a writer for the CBS show "CSI," alleging she named two shady characters in an episode after them to get revenge for a real estate deal gone bad.

Real estate agents Melinda and Tamkin are suing writer and producer Goldfinger for defamation and invasion-of-privacy. They allege the show hurt their real estate business and are seeking $6 million in damages.

The lawsuit references an episode that featured a real estate agent named Melinda, who dies under mysterious circumstances, and her husband , a mortgage broker who watches pornography, drinks and is suspected of killing his wife.

The characters had the last name Tamkin in original screenplay and during casting calls, at which Goldfinger helped cast actors who looked like the Tamkins, according to the lawsuit. The Tamkins allege the producers changed the characters' last name to Tucker at the "eleventh hour," an admission that Goldfinger borrowed key details from their real lives.

But synopses of the episode posted on several Web sites still list the characters as and Melinda Tamkin, the lawsuit states.

Glassman, the Tamkins' attorney, said potential clients looking for their real estate company could have been deterred from contacting them because of the episode descriptions that were online for months before the program aired.

"In this business, you never know why the phone doesn't ring," Glassman said. "It's highly unlikely they would ever have contacted them and wanted to retain them as a professional real estate agent."

The lawsuit said the Tamkins represented the owners of a Los Angeles home that Goldfinger wanted to buy in 2005. She pulled out when the sale was in escrow, but there was no indication of any animosity at the time.

Calls to Goldfinger and CBS were not returned Friday night. An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps!

[Guest guest]

This case seems to be one of malicious intent, and very amateurish at that.

Many writers do think of real people when they are developing characters. If I'm thinking of a bad guy for example, I'll have an idea of that character's main characteristics. Is the character a rough bully? a slick manipulator? a backstabbing false friend? I use that as a start point and remember how people like that in my life behaved. They I think about characters I have read in other stories, history, etc.. Then mostly I look at my story and how this character will fit into it. Taking all of that together I have my own character. I've never written a character completely based on one person and certainly never to make an example of them like this person did.

As for names, I used to use a book that had names and their meanings. However, that ended up with repeating names through stories and sometimes odd sounding names based on what they were like, especially the bad guys. Now I use a simple name list that does have definitions, author names from books in my library (never complete but a first name from this book or a last name from another), or something like that. On the other hand, I have avoided using names that belonged to anyone I have actually known to avoid complications like this writer got herself into.

Thanks for the caution, This particular instance of real names being used in fiction does seem very suspicious, with the other similarities between the fictional characters and the real people. An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps!

[Guest guest]

Thanks for the caution, This particular instance of real names being used in fiction does seem very suspicious, with the other similarities between the fictional characters and the real people.However, in a less co-incidental setting, a writer might have once heard of a name, then it goes into his subconscious, becomes part of his memory that is not sepcific as to origin. Later he does not realize when he uses that name for a fictional character, that it is the name of a real person.To avoid this, one could do an internet search on the names of his fictional characters, or do a search of phone directories etc.As said, this should be an interesting case!renaissanzelady"My cat Rusty is a servant of the Living God."(adapted from a poem by Smart)Subject: Writer's bewareTo: FAMSecretSociety Received: Sunday, May 24, 2009, 1:03 AM

This should be an interesting case.

http://www.foxnews. com/story/ 0,2933,521426, 00.html?test= latestnews

LOS ANGELES — A Los Angeles couple filed a lawsuit Friday against a writer for the CBS show "CSI," alleging she named two shady characters in an episode after them to get revenge for a real estate deal gone bad.

Real estate agents Melinda and Tamkin are suing writer and producer Goldfinger for defamation and invasion-of- privacy. They allege the show hurt their real estate business and are seeking $6 million in damages.

The lawsuit references an episode that featured a real estate agent named Melinda, who dies under mysterious circumstances, and her husband , a mortgage broker who watches pornography, drinks and is suspected of killing his wife.

The characters had the last name Tamkin in original screenplay and during casting calls, at which Goldfinger helped cast actors who looked like the Tamkins, according to the lawsuit. The Tamkins allege the producers changed the characters' last name to Tucker at the "eleventh hour," an admission that Goldfinger borrowed key details from their real lives.

But synopses of the episode posted on several Web sites still list the characters as and Melinda Tamkin, the lawsuit states.

Glassman, the Tamkins' attorney, said potential clients looking for their real estate company could have been deterred from contacting them because of the episode descriptions that were online for months before the program aired.

"In this business, you never know why the phone doesn't ring," Glassman said. "It's highly unlikely they would ever have contacted them and wanted to retain them as a professional real estate agent."

The lawsuit said the Tamkins represented the owners of a Los Angeles home that Goldfinger wanted to buy in 2005. She pulled out when the sale was in escrow, but there was no indication of any animosity at the time.

Calls to Goldfinger and CBS were not returned Friday night. An Excellent Credit Score is 750. See Yours in Just 2 Easy Steps!

Be smarter than spam. See how smart SpamGuard is at giving junk email the boot with the All-new Yahoo! Mail