Lindsay Lohan is currently embroiled in a legal dispute with Grand Theft Auto 5 developer Rockstar Games and publisher Take-Two Interactive for using her “persona and image” to promote the game. Lohan forwarded 67 pages of evidence to the court supporting her claim.
Hollywood Reporter reports that Lohan has replaced her original complaint with a new 67-page complaint, filled with pictured evidence with photos of the game discs featuring a blonde, red bikini-clad woman holding up a peace sign, which Lohan claims is a photo of a “lookalike model” used to “evoke the persona and image” of her [pictured below]. She claims that the image imitates a photograph that was taken of her in 2007.
Lohan’s lawyers argue that the game development studio has used the image on a variety of merchandise as well as in advertising: “The Defendants were in the business of selling games as opposed to artists displaying artwork in galleries for profit where unauthorized images or portraits of individuals were reproduced in limited editions as opposed to the mass production for commercial promotion and financial gain.”
Hollywood Reporter states that Take-Two has also raised a statute-of-limitations defense in response to Lohan’s lawsuit. They point out that the original complaint alleged that an announcement of the Grand Theft Auto 5 side mission involving Lindsay’s likeness had come in June 2013, more than a year before the complaint was filed.
Lohan has reacted to the defense by pointing out that her likeness was “republished” with the release of the game later in 2013. The amended lawsuit states Take-Two modified her image to fit on the game disc. Lohan now claims that this "modification" should satisfy the exception to the one-year statute of limitation.
Image credit: Lindsay Lohan.