[note: this is in GQ, because I’m looking for examples of such work, and any objections raised by the famous people–it’s not in CS --yet-- because I’m NOT looking for discussion of these books or stories. I’m not asking for legal advice, either, just some fiction that does what I’m asking about.]
I just had the idea about writing a story I’m having a difficult time writing, because I’m too close to the subject matter, and probably will be for some time, but am bursting with desire to put it down on paper. Essentially, I had a tumultuous (and ultimately unsuccessful) love affair with a woman I’d had a gigantic crush on ever since I was about 7 years old, but all I can write is sappy stuff about it now–but I just saw a music video of a famous songstress (if you care who she is, she’s the one I named in the “music that gets you hot” thread, but it’s irrelevant here, other than that she’s very famous) and my idea is to transpose many of the details about my love affair with this un-famous woman and write the story as if they happened with the famous one. I have a hook to make meeting the famous woman plausible, and in my imagination if I had such an affair, it probably would have turned out pretty much the same, and for the same reason–what was thrilling and fantasy-satisfying to me, would have been “meh” to her.
I know about fan-fic, and I know about the high level of damages that must be shown for a celebrity to sue successfully for libel, but does anyone know some examples of fiction (that could conceivably be read as non-fiction) with an erotic element? I’m drawing blanks, and I’d like to look some previous examples of this sub-sub-genre before I start writing this story.
literotica has a huge “Celebrity” section which is entirely erotic stories with famous people. [edited to add: I believe they all have a huge “THIS IS FICTION” disclaimer at the top]
There is a huge amount of erotic fiction about famous people. It’s called Real People Fiction, or RPF. I’ve never heard of anyone getting sued for writing it, but fanfiction writers tend to be very careful about disclaimers. A standard RPF disclaimer goes along the lines of “this is complete fiction and no profit is being made from it”. My point is: you are not alone in your desire to write RPF. It’s a whole thing.
Anyway, googling RPF (or Real People/Person Fiction) should get you a lot of hits. In my experience, the best stuff is not on fanfiction.net, but on livejournal and other journaling sites, like dreamwidth.
There’s some really…disturbing…stuff on there. Proceed with caution. If you ever need proof that Rule 34 is true, this is the place to find it. shudder
There’s plenty of sexual fan-fic and even slash fic about famous people on the net. It’s only if you try to publish it in print that you will encounter some obstacle, in which case, change the details to make it a thinly veiled version of the celebrity and you will be fine (Nadonna instead of Madonna)…
I’ve had that thought, Jack, and can do it easily. Boney Twitchell? Honi Bitchell? Ronni Quitchell? I was just trying to figure out what has happened when authors have used celebs with their IRL names in stories.
Gosh, those literotica stories are crude, around three steps below Penthouse letters. This stuff hardly even qualifies as “fiction,” in my book, other than technically. I mean when you begin with meeting Rachel Weisz on a nude beach remarking on the size of your manhood, you’re lacking a certain plausibility factor, no? Or Beyonce and Jessica bumping tinto each other in a women’s changing room in a Victoria’s Secret and remarking on how well the other’s bust is endowed–the funniest line was “I am not lying about this” when the disclaimer at the top insists he certainly is.
I’m proposing to write a serious short story, all about falling for someone hopelessly above your own status, with an erotic element, which only marginally overlaps with this stuff, if at all.
And WOW is that adultfanfiction site crude. And powerful dum. The first story’s subtitle is “Ever come across an old fried that you were just dying to fuck? Well here it is” and after I read it, I was longing for a story about a moldy zeppole found behind the couch that someone had an erotic hankering for, because this was a total p.o.s.
Of course My Uncle Oswald (a favorite of mine) was set in the 1920s, some fifty years before the story was written, so the adventures were about the erotic lives of famous people who were long since dead, and so had very few objections to raise.
Perhaps the most obvious example* of a famous person being used in a novel is Shoeless Joe by W. P. Kinsella. This was made into the movie Field of Dreams. J. D. Salinger is a character in the novel. Some details were changed, including the name, for this character in the movie. Although Salinger may have objected to being used in the novel, the publishers decided to go ahead and publish it anyway, apparently figuring that a disclaimer was sufficient to avoid legal action. The producers of the movie decided that it was necessary to change the name and some other details. What you can publish depends on what the publisher and their lawyers decide you can publish.
*Well, an even more obvious example of a famous person being turned into a film character is John Malkovich in Being John Malkovich, but then Malkovich was involved in the production right from the start, which meant that there was no chance of anyone being sued.
Nadonna will get her lawyers down on you with exactly the same speed.
The test is whether it is obvious to the ordinary reader who the person is. The mere changing of a few obvious details doesn’t affect the libel or use of the celebrity’s trademark or depiction under the unique California law protecting celebrities or probably a half dozen other statues.
From here we get into the usual blather of whether the use is parody or other protected fair use or whatever. There is no general answer to any of these questions, since they depend on the specifics of any individual piece.
O.K., I admit that there was nothing sexual going on with Salinger, but I suspect that even if there was, it wouldn’t have been any easier for Salinger to sue Kinsella.
If you want to write a serious story, I suggest making up your own celebrity character. The instant you put in a real name, people mentally demote your story. Most people won’t read it at all, they’ll just assume it’s some silly wish fulfillment thing.
So, um, this is my hobby. Which might make me a horrible person, but I’m not going to let that spoil my fun. (If you want some examples of my work, PM me - I don’t want to get the wires crossed on my online identities too much. A lot of it is more story-driven than just porn, but it’s based around romantic/sexual relationships and there are X-rated scenes accordingly.)
I’ve never personally dealt with the actual people finding what I’ve written. A friend of mine who was a bit of a big name in a particular online community for RPF had someone else hand a copy of one of her very dirty stories over to the people it starred. The celebrities were apparently bemused (and amused) but did not try to sue for libel or anything. My friend was embarrassed and pissed off that someone had done this without consulting her, as you can imagine.
There was a scandalous occurrence recently where a famous person found some erotic fanfiction about himself, was reportedly turned on, and had some X-rated chats with the young ladies writing said fanfiction, some of whom - apparently unbeknownst to him - were underage. This is the only RPF-related scandal I know of; I’ve never heard of legal action brought against RPF writers.
Laws vary from country to country. I’ve been told that a French fellow published a novel, for profit, about a torrid relationship between two members of (English rock band) The Libertines where the band members were either called by their real names or very obvious aliases, and no legal action was pursued.
The most famous one I can think of is the J. G. Ballard story, Why I Want to Fuck Ronald Reagan, which he wrote back in 1968! I won’t vouch for it’s erotic appeal, though.
I’m still having traumatic flashbacks to the series of Danny Elfman/Tim Burton slash fanfic I read several years ago. It wasn’t so much stimulating as it was trainwrecky…you try to look away, but…