What Women Want

(2000)   Tags: Paramount

Gottlieb Development LLC v. Paramount Pictures Corporation

In the motion picture “What Women Want,” released by defendant Paramount Pictures Corporation in 2000, Mel Gibson plays an advertising executive who acquires the ability to “hear” what women are thinking. In one scene, Gibson and his co-star Helen Hunt brainstorm with other employees to develop ideas for marketing certain consumer products to women. At various points during the scene, a pinball machine — the “Silver Slugger” — appears in the background. The Silver Slugger is distributed by plaintiff Gottlieb Development LLC, and Paramount used the pinball machine in the scene without Gottlieb’s permission.

Judgment: Defendant’s motion to dismiss is granted in its entirety, with prejudice and with costs (but without attorneys’ fees).