University of Minnesota Law School Scholarship Repository Minnesota Law Review 1994 Starstruck: The Overextension of Celebrity Publicity Rights in State and Federal Courts Steven C. Clay Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr Part of the Law Commons Recommended Citation Clay, Steven C., "Starstruck: The Overextension of Celebrity Publicity Rights in State and Federal Courts" (1994). Minnesota Law Review. 2376. https://scholarship.law.umn.edu/mlr/2376 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the University of Minnesota Law School. It has been accepted for inclusion in Minnesota Law Review collection by an authorized administrator of the Scholarship Repository. For more information, please contact
[email protected]. Note Starstruck: The Overextension of Celebrity Publicity Rights in State and Federal Courts Steven C. Clay 0 body swayed to music, 0 brightening glance, How can we know the dancer from the dance? -William Butler Yeats 1 As part of a print advertising campaign for Samsung Elec- tronics America, Inc., David Deutsch Associates, Inc. created an advertisement parodying the popular game show "Wheel of For- tune."2 The advertisement featured a mechanical robot on a mock "Wheel of Fortune" set, clearly imitating Vanna White, the game show's hostess and famed letter-turner.3 White, who did not consent to the ad,' sued Samsung and Deutsch 5 in federal district court for the Central District of California, 6 alleging they had unlawfully appropriated her identity for commercial gain, thus violating her right of publicity. 7 The district court 1. Wnru. BUTER YEATs, Among School Children, in THE COLLECTED POEMS OF W.B.