A comic-book writer’s efforts to mess with some of Hollywood’s leading funnymen got blown away by a Manhattan appeals court this morning.
Robert Cabell accused Adam Sandler, Robert Smigel and Judd Apatow of ripping off his “hairdresser turned hero” character Jayms Blonde for their 2008 comedy “You Don’t Mess With the Zohan.”
But the U.S. Second Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that tossed Cabell’s suit before trial for failing to establish his claim of copyright infringement.
“Aside from the unprotectable ideas of (1) brandishing a blow dryer as a weapon, and (2) the characters’ fighting poses, there is no plausible basis for a reasonable jury to find that the parties’ respective expressions of the concept of a crimefighting hairdresser are substantially similar,” Judges Chester Straub, Reena Raggi and Richard Wesley wrote in an unsigned order.
Cabell, who represented himself during his appeal, said he was considering a further appeal, insisting that none of the judges had yet addressed the merits of his claim.
“I don’t know why or how they could ignore all of my case law and never even address the issues I submitted in my filing,” he said.