This is something absolutely nobody saw coming.
Rockstar Games, makers of the infamous Grand Theft Auto franchise, is being sued by the Psychic Readers Network for the misappropriation of Miss Cleo, the late night television psychic.
The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Florida last Wednesday, names both Take-Two Interactive, and Rockstar Games as defendants. It alleges that the character Auntie Poulet in Grand Theft Auto: Vice City infringes on their copyright of the late Miss Cleo.
An excerpt from the court papers reads, “The Defendants’ Auntie Poulet’s similarities to Miss Cleo and her copyrighted attributes are of such a breadth and extraordinary nature that they can only be explained by copying—which is unsurprising given that Defendants hired the actress who performed as Miss Cleo to provide voice overs, using the same accent as Miss Cleo, for the infringing video game.”
You may remember Miss Cleo from late night TV back in the late 90s and early 2000s. Played by Youree Dell Harris, who created the Jamaican psychic character after being discovered by the Psychic Readers Network, Miss Cleo would become a dominant face in infomercials at a certain time of night advertising her services to read people’s fortunes. Over the course of her career, she made over a billion dollars for Psychic Readers Network according to an interview published in Vice, much of it obtained through fraudulently omitting costs to those calling her hotline.
Miss Cleo would eventually be shut down in 2003 when the FTC sued the Psychic Readers Network, who settled out of court for $500 million.
However, the Miss Cleo personality was still world famous, and to cash in on the persona she agreed to play a part in Rockstar’s latest game, Vice City, as the psychic Auntie Poulet. She retained the Jamaican patois of Miss Cleo to be an instantly recognizable character.
Vice City released in 2002 to rave reviews, selling over 17 million copies by 2008, giving both Rockstar and Take-Two a boatload of cash.
So why would the Psychic Readers Network wait 15 years to sue? Well, partly because Harris died of cancer last year and so cannot offer her testimony in defense, and perhaps they foresaw the massive success of Rockstar and that this would be the right time. Who knows?
“We will vigorously defend ourselves with regard to this matter,” Take-Two replied to the suit in a written statement. It went on to accuse the proceedings as “entirely meritless and completely ridiculous”. Rockstar has yet to comment, but thus far similar suits placed against them for appropriating popular celebrities have all been tossed out of court.
