A judge in California dismissed Goodfellas and The Godfather Part II actor Frank Sivero’s claims Thursday that The Simpsons copied his characteristics for a mob character named Louie.
Sivero, who sued FOX in October, had his case dismissed by Los Angeles Superior Court judge Rita Miller after Fox’s motion was granted to strike the complaint on the basis of California’s anti-SLAPP law. This law, according to the Hollywood Reporter, requires the plaintiff who challenges a work of free speech to demonstrate the likeliness of prevailing on his claims.
In this lawsuit, Sivero claimed that The Simpsons character had similar characteristics not typical of all mob characters, including curly hair and the specific shape of his sideburns. The actor’s attorney, Alex Herrera, argued that these similarities to Sivero were reason to have a jury on the case.
Judge Miller, however sided with Fox when she said that the character was a parody on all mob characters and said, “Even if Mr. Sivero’s face was on [the character], as long as it’s parody and has other characteristics discussed in the tentative, you can’t win.”
Sivero asked for $250 million in damages after he said he lived next to writers of The Simpsons in 1989 while he was developing his Goodfellas character, and after Louie appeared in 15 episodes of the television show along with video games and in The Simpsons Movie.
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