It looks like "Simpsons" voice actor Hank Azaria can now legally raise his voice for Jim Brockmire.
Hank Azaria, who provides a number of voices on "The Simpsons", has won the lawsuit against "Leap Year" actor Craig Bierko over one of the characters, sports caster Jim Brockmire.
Judge Gary Allen Feess granted Hank Azaria's motion for summary judgment in the suit last week, finding that the Brockmire character is copyrighted material owned by both him and How to Pictures, Inc.
Azaria filed suit in 2012, asserting that Bierko had falsely claimed ownership of the character, jeopardizing a potential movie deal. In 2011, Craig Bierko's attorney sent a cease and desist letter to Azaria over the sportscaster character Jim Brockmire (who was featured in Funny or Die last 2010), claiming that the character had been created by Bierko himself.
However, Judge Feess found otherwise, finding that the Brockmire character was both copyrightable, and that Azaria and How to Pictures own the copyright and in Bierko's case didn't prove otherwise.
The judge noted that the Brockmire character has characteristics such as being "a middle-aged white man" who "wears plaid, a rose at his lapel, owns a lucky pen, has 'old school' values, has a penchant for movies, especially 'The Godfather,' loves his wife to death, jovially interacts with his public, has a depth of obscure cultural knowledge, loses his temper uncontrollably, and works as a baseball announcer."
Bierko's character, identified as Sports Announcer Character in Feess' order, has a handful of characteristics that wouldn't "serve to distinguish Sports Announcer Character from any actual baseball announce sitting in the booth on given game day."
The judge declines to issue an injunction against Bierko, but the ruling conceivably allows Azaria some peace should he decide to turn Jim Brockmire into a feature film. There's a saying in legal circles that anyone who blurts out an idea without first making his bargain has no one but himself to blame for the loss of that idea. Perhaps it can be added that actors best be careful about what they show off on the party circuit.
