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MICHAEL LUCAS SUED BY INTERNATIONAL MEDIA FILMS, INC FOR LA DOLCE VITA
By:Keith Witchka, Staff Writer
The classic 1960s film "La Dolce Vita," directed by Federico Fellini, is being put into the headlines by "two pornographic gay movie producers who are using the same name, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday February 15, 2007. International Media Films Inc. accused New York filmmaker Andrei Treivas Bregman of trademark and copyright infringement for the porn films he made under his business name, Michael Lucas. The lawsuit seeks to put an end to all sales of the movies, "Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita" Parts 1 and Part 2 [2007] and to collect unspecified damages suffered. Bregman (aka) Michael Lucas, who moved to the United States from Moscow in 1997, calls the lawsuit that was filed in U.S. District Court in Manhattan a joke.According to Michael Lucas, "Nobody can be confused and think they're buying Fellini's movie by buying mine," said Bregman, noting the name Michael Lucas was part of his title, which otherwise means "The Sweet Life."
New York-based International Media Films stated it believed that the gay pornographic films, released last month, and Debuted in America on the JRL Weekly Top 50 at No. 1 and held that position for four (4) consecutive weeks, will "infringe, tarnish and dilute" its trademark rights to the highly decorated "La Dolce Vita," which won the 1961 Academy Award for costume design and the New York Film Critics Circle Award for best foreign film of that year. "La Dolce Vita" [1961] with its famously sexy scene of Anita Ekberg coaxing Marcello Mastroianni into the Trevi fountain, also won the Golden Palm at Cannes. Director Fellini also won a lifetime achievement award in film in 1993, just before his death.
International Media Films said it bought the rights for "La Dolce Vita" in 2001. The film introduced the term "paparazzi" as it followed the life of a tabloid journalist who had covered the show business life of Rome while yearning to write about more serious subjects.
This has been a crazy first quarter of 2007 for Lucas Entertainment Group. I guess that when you're on top, everyone comes out to get piece. By the way, just in case you hadn't heard, Michael Lucas' La Dolce Vita [2007] is up for 14 GayVN Awards this year in San Francisco on February 24th, 2007.
