# "All persons in this show are fictional and any resemblence is a coincidence" **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [November 6, 2009, 6:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622 "2009-11-06T18:53:56Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![MsRobyn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/90ced4/32.png) [@MsRobyn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MsRobyn)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/21 "2009-11-07T12:27:39Z")
And considering that many of L&O’s writers are attorneys, you’d think they’d know where the line is and how not to cross it. ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 2:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/22 "2009-11-07T14:51:12Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#): > > What was really weird was I was watching the film “Ed Gein,” about the infamous serial killer Ed Gein, and it even used archival footage of the \*real \*Ed Gein, and yet at the end had a disclaimer stating that all the characters were fictitious and any resemblance was coincidental. > > :dubious: Was Ed Gein wandering around in an empty wilderness? The disclaimer applies to all the characters, not just the famous one. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 2:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/23 "2009-11-07T14:57:46Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > The really crazy thing is that you’ll even see this disclaimer in cases where it’s blatantly not true. You can make a movie about the Watergate scandal, with an actor who looks like Richard Nixon, who’s addressed as “President Nixon” by the other characters in the movie, and who’s listed in the credits as “Richard Nixon”, and the film will still have the disclaimer that any resemblance to real people is coincidental. But the disclaimer doesn’t just apply to Nixon, it applies to other characters. So if a lawyer character in that film advised Nixon to have Liddy killed and tried to hire a hit man to get it done, John Dean (RIP) might still get worked up at the idea that someone might infer that he was the hitman-hirer. ---
**Author:** ![Maserschmidt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/maserschmidt/32/18829_2.png) [@Maserschmidt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Maserschmidt)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 2:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/24 "2009-11-07T14:58:47Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > The disclaimer applies to all the characters, not just the famous one. Doh! Ninja’d! ---
**Author:** ![johnpost](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f17d59/32.png) [@johnpost](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/johnpost)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/25 "2009-11-07T15:02:15Z")
it might also allow for artistic license. if it is inspired by recent events but not a historical documentary then you can make composite characters, fictional events and quotes that make good for a hour long (minus commercials) drama. ---
**Author:** ![ricksummon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ricksummon/32/3333_2.png) [@ricksummon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ricksummon)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 5:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/26 "2009-11-07T17:30:01Z")
> [@Markxxx](#): > > Michael Jackson had kids over, Jackson was arrested, Jackson was put on trial, Jackson was found not guilty, Jackson died. These are facts these are not subject to copyright. But now that MJ is dead, isn’t there a legal principle that states you can’t defame the dead? That is, you can basically say anything you want and you can’t be sued for libel because the dead aren’t around to feel any harm to their reputations? ---
**Author:** ![Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/7cd45c/32.png) [@Elendil\_s\_Heir](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Elendil_s_Heir)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 8:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/27 "2009-11-07T20:05:57Z")
> [@Maserschmidt](#): > > …John Dean (RIP) might still get worked up at the idea that someone might infer that he was the hitman-hirer. John Dean is still alive, age 71 and living in Akron, acc. to Wiki. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [November 7, 2009, 10:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/28 "2009-11-07T22:31:56Z")
> [@](#): > > The disclaimer applies to all the characters, not just the famous one. Yeah, but it also doesn’t just apply to the non-famous ones. If they just said “some characters are fictional”, that’d be fine, but “all characters are fictional”, when one of your characters is Richard Nixon, pretty clearly implies that Richard Nixon is fictional. ---
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 12:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/29 "2009-11-08T00:11:53Z")
> [@ricksummon](#): > > But now that MJ is dead, isn’t there a legal principle that states you can’t defame the dead? That is, you can basically say anything you want and you can’t be sued for libel because the dead aren’t around to feel any harm to their reputations? Except in Tasmania, where there are circumstances under which dead people (or, more realistically, their Estate) can sue for defamation. I believe it’s more to do with the _recently_ deceased, though- say a (obviously fictional) controversial local personage dies and someone does a radio broadcast saying “I’m glad they’re dead… Did you know they once set fire to an orphanage full of puppies, took bribes, and sold national secrets to unfriendly countries?”, then I’m pretty sure the deceased’s Estate can launch a defamation action. Having said all that, I’m not a lawyer, this isn’t legal advice, etc, yada yada yada. ---
**Author:** ![TBG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c89c15/32.png) [@TBG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TBG)\ **Post date:** [November 8, 2009, 12:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/30 "2009-11-08T00:19:11Z")
> [@Rumor\_Watkins](#): > > Cloaking something in a veneer of fiction is not going to provide a defense against a libel/slander claim, afaik. Todd McFarlane learned that [the hard way](http://stlouis.bizjournals.com/stlouis/stories/2006/06/19/daily18.html). ---
**Author:** ![UltraVires](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/u/ecccb3/32.png) [@UltraVires](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/UltraVires)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 1:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/31 "2009-11-09T01:54:58Z")
> [@Gfactor](#): > > And of course the classic Campari ad parody that caused Rev. Falwell severe emotional distress: > [http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=485&invol=46](http://caselaw.lp.findlaw.com/cgi-bin/getcase.pl?court=US&vol=485&invol=46) I think that case is very different in that, as you linked, nobody who read that ad parody would really think that Falwell had sex with his mother in an outhouse. It was obviously a joke. Now, if it said something like Falwell molested young girls in his office at Liberty University, then he would have had stronger grounds, no? Since that would be something that a reasonable person might believe as accurate? ---
**Author:** ![Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/eyebrows_0f_doom/32/3119_2.png) [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)\ **Post date:** [November 9, 2009, 4:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622/32 "2009-11-09T04:56:42Z")
> [@Exapno\_Mapcase](#): > > Was Ed Gein wandering around in an empty wilderness? > > The disclaimer applies to all the characters, not just the famous one. I don’t remember, is that a famous scene from something? I realize the disclaimer is for all the characters. But why would it say say “\*\*All \*\*characters portrayed are fictitious,” when \*\*all \*\*the characters are clearly \*\*not \*\*fictitious? I’ve seen other films say, “Some characters portrayed are fictitious,” or that “Although based on true events & people, some events & characters have been created,” etc. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/all-persons-in-this-show-are-fictional-and-any-resemblence-is-a-coincidence/516622.md?page=1)