News-Info-Alerts

Re: Scott O'Grady Sues Hollyweird

To: ALL

From: Andi Wolos & Bob Necci

(POW-MIA InterNetwork)

Date: August 22, 2002

"U.S. pilot downed in Bosnia sues Hollywood

By Pat Nason UPI Hollywood Reporter

LOS ANGELES, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Twentieth Century Fox is expected to fight a lawsuit filed in Texas this week on behalf of Scott O'Grady, the retired U.S. Air Force pilot whose ordeal in Bosnia was the basis for the 2001 Gene Hackman-Owen Wilson movie "Behind Enemy Lines."

Lawyers for O'Grady filed the suit Monday in U.S. District Court in Texarkana, alleging that Fox and the Discovery Channel conspired to infringe on O'Grady's right to commercially exploit his name, likeness and identity.

The suit claims that Fox irreparably damaged the commercial value of O'Grady's name and identity through its marketing of the movie, and that Discovery aided and abetted Fox with an airing of the TV docudrama "Behind Enemy Lines: The Scott O'Grady Story."

The former Air Force captain became a national hero in June 1995, after his F-16 was shot out of the sky over Bosnia and he parachuted safely to the ground from an altitude estimated at almost five miles. He used his survival skills over the next six days to elude enemy soldiers until a U.S. rescue crew located him and flew him safely out of the war zone.

O'Grady was awarded a Bronze Star, a Purple Heart and an Air Force Commendation Medal for meritorious service. According to the lawsuit, he also became "a household name synonymous with American heroism and pride."

He sat for an interview with the British Broadcasting Corp., which largely formed the basis for "Missing in Action" -- a BBC "dramatic reconstruction" of O'Grady's ordeal. According to the lawsuit, the Discovery Channel acquired U.S. broadcast rights to the program, and renamed it "Behind Enemy Lines: The Scott O'Grady Story" without O'Grady's "knowledge or consent."

The phrase "behind enemy lines" is used in the subtitle of "Return with Honor," O'Grady's 1995 best-selling book about his brush with death.

The federal lawsuit has harsh words for the entertainment industry -- and for Fox in particular -- accusing Hollywood of exploiting the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks for commercial gain.

"The events of Sept. 11 caused the country to again pay due respect and honor those who risk their lives every day in the service of the country," O'Grady's lawyers said in court papers. "The media and entertainment industries understood this wave of patriotism and immediately seized upon it as an opportunity to increase profits by supplying the public with entertainment programs that would tie in to the renewed American spirit."

Lawyers for O'Grady said Fox used the film to exploit his hero status.

"Apparently, Fox's initial plan was to sell back to the American people the goodwill and feelings associated with O'Grady's actions and identity," said the lawsuit, "without actually using his name or explicitly acknowledging that the movie was based on his heroism."

The suit alleged that although the pilot in the movie was clearly not O'Grady, he nevertheless experienced a series of events that no U.S. pilot other than O'Grady had endured.

It accuses Fox and the Discovery Channel of using a special cable telecast of the BBC docudrama as an infomercial for the movie, prior to the movie's U.S. release in December 2001 -- with the intent to deceive the public into thinking that O'Grady "was affiliated with and endorsed" the feature film.

According to the suit, O'Grady was "troubled that the 'hero' in the Fox movie used foul language, was portrayed as a 'hot dog' type pilot, and disobeyed orders, unlike O'Grady."

A spokeswoman for the Discovery Channel said the cable channel would not comment on a pending legal matter.

A spokeswoman for Fox, while not confirming that the studio will fight the lawsuit, said the studio was "surprised" that the suit was filed.

"We have the utmost respect for Scott O'Grady," said the spokeswoman. "We were surprised by his lawyer's court filing because at the time of release, Mr. O'Grady's public comment acknowledged that the movie was not his story. Rather, it was a story based on the concept of a public event that was turned into a movie, which he acknowledged we had the right to do."

In a Dec. 2, 2001, article, the Spokane Spokesman-Review quoted O'Grady as saying the movie was not his story.

"I read the script way back when," he said, "and it's not my story."

O'Grady told the paper that Fox "was not even trying to say" that the movie was based on his true-life experience.

"You know how they'll do movies where they say it is based on a real story? This is not even close to that," he said. "They just went ahead and took the concept of my story, which was a public event, and then turned it into a Hollywood movie."

He said that was just a case of "literary license and freedom of speech."

O'Grady said he sold the movie rights to his story to Orion Pictures, but the project fell through after MGM bought Orion in 1997.

"Actually," he said, "in all that mix, my project ended up on the shelf in somebody's file. I decided to just be quiet about it. And when the rights expired, they reverted back to me."

The 36-year-old O'Grady lives in Plano, Texas, and works as a motivational speaker. The lawsuit claims that his earning power has been harmed by the Fox movie, and asks the court to order Fox and the Discovery Channel to turn over to O'Grady the profits from the movie and the docudrama.

The movie grossed almost $59 million at the U.S. box office and an estimated $90 million worldwide. It was released on home video in April.

Copyright © 2002 United Press International"