FOX(NEW YORK) — Fox has been slapped with a $250 million lawsuit by an actor who claims a character on The Simpsons is based on him, in violation of his publicity rights.
The character in question is Louie, who occasionally has been seen on the long-running animated series over the years as a crony of the mobster Fat Tony. The plaintiff, The Godfather Part II and Goodfellas actor Frank Sivero, claims “Louie’s appearance and mannerisms are strongly evocative” of him, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Sivero alleges that back in 1989, the year The Simpsons premiered, he was living in the same apartment complex as Simpsons writers. He claims the writers were aware he was creating a gangster character for Goodfellas named Frankie Carbone, which was based on his personality. He says the Louie character debuted on The Simpsons a few years later.
Furthermore, Sivero argues that actor Dan Castellaneta, who voices Louie as well as other Simpsons characters, most notably Homer Simpson, has said he “modeled his voice after Italian American actor, Joe Pesci, who also had a role in Goodfellas.”
Among other allegations, Sivero says Simpsons producer Gracie Films had expressed interest in collaborating with him, but he now feels they were “simply studying him further for the character Louie.”
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