Another day, another wacky lawsuit being filed against something Rockstar has done. Granted, this one has been a while in the making.
Grand Theft Auto: Vice City released fifteen years ago and only now is the estate of late television psychic Miss Cleo, known as Psychic Readers Network, filing a suit against Rockstar for the alleged appropriation of her image and accent in the creation of the Auntie Poulet character that resided in Vice City’s Little Haiti.
The suit claims Rockstar has made themselves more than half a billion dollars “exploiting” Miss Cleo’s persona, going so far as to point out the developer Youree Harris, the actress who used to play Miss Cleo in real life, to voice Auntie Poulet.
For a refresher on who Auntie Poulet even is, here’s the mission “Dirty Lickin’s” complete with her starting brief.
But it’s been fifteen years. This supposed network of psychics certainly didn’t have the foresight to prevent this prior to the game’s release and now they’re more than fifteen years late to the party in filing this suit? Certainly sounds fishy. Much like the famous Lindsay Lohan likeness debacle that clouded Grand Theft Auto V for a brief while, we’re sure this will be thrown out before too long.
Rockstar hasn’t taken the suit lightly, however. “These claims are entirely meritless and completely ridiculous,” their statement read. “We will vigorously defend ourselves with regard to this matter.”
