Perhaps we should have seen this coming, but Rockstar is being sued by the Psychic Readers Network (PRN) for ‘exploiting’ the character of Auntie Poulet. Youree Harris—who also went by the name Miss Cleo during her stint for PRN—was hired by Rockstar to voice Auntie Poulet in the now fifteen year old sandbox title Grand Theft Auto: Vice City.
Auntie Poulet was known as a voodoo and hoodoo practitioner in Little Haiti, and could apparently communicate with the dead.
PRN says it invested well over $100M USD into creating the Miss Cleo TV psychic persona, and claims Rockstar has been profiting from the Poulet character after Harris passed away last year. Although Vice City came out in 2002, Rockstar would technically be making sales anytime the game is sold through a bundle (Grand Theft Auto: Vice City is the fourth best-selling PlayStation 2 game of all time).
A Rockstar spokesperson recently responded to the accusations, telling TMZ that the claims are ‘ridiculous’ and they will ‘vigorously defend’ the company.
Source: TMZ