Cameo Clips

The Court of Appeal of California, Second District, Division 3, denied a defense motion to strike under the state's anti-SLAPP statute a lawsuit alleging defamation and invasion of privacy over the release of a DVD edition of the movie 'Reality Bites.' Dyer v. Childress, B187804. California Civil Code Sec. 425.16 is intended to protect against 'a strategic lawsuit against public participation,' that is, one that interferes with discussion of issues of public concern. Screenplay writer Helen Childress had gone to film school with an individual named Troy Dyer and included a character with that name portrayed as 'rebellious slacker.' The real Troy Dyer, now a financial consultant, sued after release of the Tenth Anniversary DVD edition of the movie. The defendants argued that use of Dyer's name amounted to 'conduct in furtherance of the exercise of the constitutional right of ' free speech in connection with ' an issue of public interest,' here issues that had confronted Generation X in the 1990s.

The court of appeal noted, however, that 'not all speech in a movie is of public significance and therefore entitled to protection under the anti-SLAPP statute ' [T]he representation of Troy Dyer as a rebellious slacker is not a matter of public interest and there is no discernable public interest in Dyer's persona. Although Reality Bites may address topics of widespread public interest, the defendants are unable to draw any connection between those topics and Dyer's defamation and false light claims ' [A]ssuming the issues facing Generation X at the start of the 1990's are of significant interest to the public, Dyer, a financial consultant living in Wisconsin who happened to have gone to school with Childress, was not connected to these issues in any way.'