Don’t F*!k With Oscar

October 20, 2009 by Brendan
Filed under: Movie News

The Academy Awards

A lot of the males species in Hollywood better start looking over their respective shoulders because Oscar is on a rampage. How many men every year, even every day, in Los Angeles, do you figure use the line “I’m an Oscar winner” to try to pick up a woman or in some cases, another man? It has to be a pretty regular occurence if you ask me.

It looks like, now, falsely claiming you have won an Oscar could lead to a first-class ticket to your local courthouse.

The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences has filed a copyright infringement lawsuit against California resident Brice Carrington. Mind you, Carrington went about things in a much more weasley fashion that simply trying to pick up a chick by saying he won an Oscar. Carrington not only claimed he was a three-time Oscar winner (in sound design no less) but he even went so far as to have a fake statue made up.

The phony three-time winner then went on to use the statue to bilk investors out of more than $3 million, which he claimed was for various sound effects projects that he had lined up. Carrington has since been arrested and charged with wire fraud and tax evasion. Now he’s getting slapped with a lawsuit from the Academy.

Filing a lawsuit for improper use of their famed gold statue is nothing new for the Academy. In the past, they have taken to court a company who threw Oscar parties and used giant replica statues as props; they sued a couple of women who tried to sell their late aunt’s 1929 Best Actress Award – for charity; and they have taken to court the owner of the former website oscarwatch.com (a website that predicted Oscar winners) for using the word “Oscar” in its web address.

In all seriousness, Mr. Carrington absolutely deserves to get his ass kicked in court for what he did. Scamming investors for $3 million is not funny at all. At the same time, any dudes out there who think you can wheel a chick by telling her you’re an Oscar winner better think twice. You never know who you might be trying to solicit. I would suggest not using the Oscar pick-up line. It might be better to downgrade to a Golden Globe or an Emmy.

Thanks to THR, Esq. for the heads up on this article.