A BIG lawyer is suing “Big Brother.”
Marvin Rosenblum, a Chicago attorney who owns the TV and movie rights to George Orwell’s novel “1984,” has hit CBS “Big Brother” with a lawsuit alleging that the show stole copyrighted material from the classic story written in 1949.
Rosenblum bought the television and motion picture rights to “1984” from Orwell’s estate nearly 20 years ago and in the early ’80s executive produced the film of the same name.
He claims that the “Big Brother’s” producers and CBS have intentionally created a show that viewers believe is connected to or approved by Orwell’s estate. Orwell died in 1950.
Rosenblum says that the allegedly unsanctioned name of the show’s production company, Orwell Productions, is more than enough evidence to prove his case and names Orwell Productions, CBS and its parent-Viacom as defendants.
Rosemblum declined to comment yesterday, and referred calls to his lawyer, William Coulson.
“I’ll take my chances with this case before any Chicago jury,” Coulson said.
“Out of the hundreds of thousands of names that they could have chosen for their production company, they selected the name Orwell Productions Inc. and we allege that that evidence is their willful intent to trade on the reputation of Mr. Orwell.”
“We believe the suit is without merit and we will prevail,” a senior CBS official told The Post.
In the classic book, Big Brother represents a government that is always carefully monitoring every moment of its citizens’ lives with cameras and microphones.
On CBS, “Big Brother” represents the producers and viewers of the reality show who watch almost every moment in the lives of a group of people who have spent most of the summer living in a house crammed with hidden cameras and microphones.
The suit is the latest headache for CBS derived from the sleep-inducing reality show that airs six days a week and has been a huge hit all over the world except in the U.S..
“Big Brother’s” mediocre ratings and penchant for expelling its most interesting personalities from the game has forcedCBS to break the show’s rules,which call for no outside contact until the contest is over.
Tonight the network will offer $20,000 to the first house guest who leaves the show to make room for a new house-mate named Beth, who is described as aged 22 and very attractive.