Unlike celebrities, they do not have to prove that you knew your work was inaccurate. Some are genuinely aggrieved while others count on the high cost of defense to force you to pay out a quick settlement. As annoying as litigation is, you must be firm. Once you give money to make a nuisance suit go away, you only encourage more people to sue you. True crime, a staple of screenwriting, is a prime source of these suits.
Many films recount notorious crimes.
Hollywood Madam all resulted in lawsuits against writers. Plaintiffs sue not only over what a screenplay says, but what it implies. It depicts author Nick Broomfield's encounters with Fleiss and his search for a mysterious man named Cookie, rumored to be her enforcer. The movie flashes an image of billboards with Cookie's beeper business, newspaper headlines, and an audiotape of him cursing on his beeper line. Although the film never states that Cookie violated any laws, a person nicknamed Cookie sued HBO, claiming the film implies that he was the Cookie in the Fleiss movie.