Entertainment

Was LiLo's Grand Theft Auto Lawsuit for Publicity?

Lindsay Lohan? Doing something purely for publicity? Why, I'd never even imagine such a thing! And yet, according to The Guardian, that is exactly what the creators of Grand Theft Auto said in response to Lindsay Lohan's lawsuit, in which she claimed that GTA "copied her persona" for use in the game without her approval. Apparently, Lohan felt that the character of Lacey Jonas in the game resembled her too heavily, what with the fact that she's presented as a frequent lodger at LA's Chateau Marmont (where Lohan lived and didn't pay her bill for a period of time) with a scram bracelet, and who also likes selfies. Sounds pretty ambiguous to me, but I don't know, I stopped trying to understand Lohan's train of thought years ago.

Anyway, the makers of GTA, Rockstar Games, have finally responded in the form of court papers to the lawsuit, which Lohan filed two months ago. Sure enough, they did not hold back:

Lindsay Lohan complains that her image and persona have been wrongfully used by Take-Two in the video game Grand Theft Auto V, but her claim is so legally meritless that it lacks any good-faith basis, and can only have been filed for publicity purposes.

They also cited a lawsuit she recently filed (and lost) against Pitbull for using her name in one of his songs. Ouch.

Whether or not this lawsuit will be thrown out like that one remains to be seen, but, gotta admit, it does seem sketchy that she's trying to claim "unspecified damages" because a video game made a character that sorta-kinda resembled her. The thing is, Lohan is sort of a cliché when it comes to the hard-partying, Hollywood bad girl stereotype that was so popular back in the mid-2000s: Sure, she's the poster child for it (along with Paris Hilton, Mischa Barton, and what Nicole Richie used to be), but she has no claim to said cliché. Other actors lived at the Chateau Marmont before her, other actors wore scram bracelets before her, and other actors are obsessed with selfies — and many actors in the future will be as well.

No response from Lohan's camp yet, but maybe her focus on that acting comeback she's trying so hard to accomplish will distract her from pursuing the matter further.