Lindsay Lohan has lost a lawsuit to hold the maker of “Grand Theft Auto V” (GTAV) responsible for allegedly invading her privacy.
The computer-generated images of a character named “Lacey Jonas” who appears in the video game do not resemble the actress such that she can sue the company that makes and markets the game, New York’s Court of Appeals ruled on March 29.
Lohan, 31, sued Take Two Interactive in 2014, charging the company with creating the character, who describes herself as “really famous,” an “actress slash singer” and “the voice of a generation,” without Lohan’s permission.
New York law prohibits the use of someone’s name, likeness, portrait, picture or voice for use in advertising without their written consent.
But while a computer-generated image can invade someone’s privacy, the Jonas character “merely is an artistic description of a ‘twenty something’ woman without any particular identifying physical characteristics,” Judge Eugene Fahey wrote on behalf of five of his colleagues.
Lohan had charged that two scenes in the game – one featuring Jonas clad in denim shorts, white t-shirt and sunglasses, and another featuring the character wearing a red bikini and bracelets taking a selfie and displaying the peace sign – exploited her image in both the game and material that promoted the Grand Theft Auto series, which has sold more than 275 million units.
The court disagreed. The scenes at issue “are indistinct, satirical representations of the style, look, and persona of a modern beach-going young woman,” Fahey wrote. “Moreover, the ambiguous representations in question are nothing more than cultural comment that is not recognizable as [Lohan] and therefore is not actionable under [the law].”
The ruling represents the latest in a string of lawsuits by Lohan, who in 2010 settled a $100 million claim against E-Trade over a Super Bowl commercial that Lohan alleged mocked her arrests for drugs and alcohol.
Three years later, Lohan sued the rapper Pitbull for defamation. The judge who oversaw the case dismissed it after determining that the song at issue was protected by the First Amendment.