A screenwriter claimed he pitched the idea to the actress and her producer husband seven years ago but did not hear from them since.
- May 9, 2014
AceShowbiz - It's a bad week for the people behind "Walk of Shame". Besides grossing a disappointing $38,000, the raunchy comedy was the subject of a new lawsuit filed by a screenwriter who claimed that the idea was stolen from his script.
Dan Rosen, whose screen credits include "The Last Supper" and "Freeloaders", filed the suit Wednesday, May 7 in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles through his Shame on You Productions. He claimed he pitched his screenplay "Darci's Walk of Shame" to Elizabeth Banks and her producer husband Max Handelman seven years ago.
Per THR, Rosen had a three-hour meeting with Banks and Handelman in which he forwarded a draft of his script for Banks to play the lead. "Banks and Handelman retained the Screenplay, and never returned any version of it," the suit said. Rosen then sent the script to several others but did not get any response either.
"Walk of Shame" opened in theaters on Friday, May 2 in the U.S., starring Banks as a reporter who is stranded in downtown L.A. after a one night stand. Attorney Charles Coate who filed the suit for Rosen detailed similarities between the movie and Rosen's script.
"The plot in both works follows a pretty blonde but prudent woman (a 'good girl') in her thirties living in a big city who goes through a break up with her boyfriend, commiserates with her best girlfriends (one of whom is sexual and foulmouthed), gets drunk, spends a 'one-nighter' with a younger man she just met who works as a busboy/bartender, wakes up the next morning at his place, and puts on her inappropriate outfit from the night before," the suit read.
Banks, Handelman, "Walk of Shame" writer and director Steven Brill, Focus World, Sidney Kimmel Entertainment, FilmDistrict and Lakeshore Entertainment were all being sued for copyright infringement and breach of implied-in-fact contract.
A spokesperson for Lakeshore Entertainment told Variety and THR, "Lakeshore developed Walk of Shame independently, prior to casting Elizabeth Banks. We believe this claim is meritless." Banks and Handelman did not produce the film.
