Dominar of Action
02-28-2003, 10:28 AM
From the ABA Journal (2/28/03)
SCARED AND SCARRED BY REALITY TV
Lawsuits Claim Pranks Take Entertainment to a Painful New Level
BY MOLLY McDONOUGH
Los Angeles resident Kara Blanc thought her friends were taking her to a swank Hollywood industry party. On the way, their car purportedly stalled on a dark deserted road outside the city. Blanc then saw what she thought was an alien attacking and killing her companions. They screamed for her to run to a nearby canyon to escape, at which point she claims she suffered severe physical and emotional injuries resulting in repeated hospitalizations.
Turns out, the experience was scripted as part of a new reality TV show. Blanc says she became the unwitting star of an episode of "Scare Tactics," set to premiere April 4 on the Sci-Fi Channel. The show uses hidden cameras to capture people’s reactions to scenarios, including alien abductions, ghost encounters and other supernatural phenomena.
Blanc sued the cable channel for negligence. She’s not alone. Lawsuits like Blanc’s are getting national attention and hiking the costs of liability insurance for these programs, industry experts say. News reports abound about similar cases, including that of a fitness trainer who sued the PAX TV network’s "Candid Camera" after he was run through an airport X-ray machine. In another, a woman sued CBS after appearing in a pilot of a "Fear Factor"-like show called "Culture Shock." She was suspended upside down in a harness for 40 minutes.
Named in Blanc’s suit are production company Tri-Crown Productions Inc.; Sci-Fi; series producers and creators Scott Hallock and Kevin Healy; and Blanc’s friends Matthew Mertha and Travis Draft, who allegedly set Blanc up for the cameras.
Blanc has asked the Los Angeles County Superior Court for punitive damages and an injunction barring production of the show and the airing of any planned episodes. Blanc v. Tri-Crown Productions, No. BC290440.
"The conduct of the defendants is outrageous, and we believe the jury will award extensive damages," says Stephen Warren Solomon, Blanc’s Playa Del Rey, Calif., attorney. He declined to discuss specifics of the case.
A spokeswoman for the Sci-Fi Channel says the prank featuring Blanc will not be shown. "It is not going to air, and never was going to air," Hali Simon says. The show’s practice is to film several pranks and air the best of the lot, she says, adding that another mock alien encounter is slated to air instead of Blanc’s.
The idea behind the show is for friends and relatives to set up loved ones in elaborate science-fiction-related pranks. In keeping with other reality programs, "Scare Tactics" will feature a veteran TV star as its host: Shannen Doherty of "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Charmed" fame.
Shows that use hidden cameras or rely on eliciting fear from participants can be the most risky to insure, though it remains to be seen how the courts will handle lawsuits against them.
"The use of a hidden camera as a dramatic or comic device goes all the way back to ‘Candid Camera,’ " says Los Angeles entertainment lawyer Jonathan H. Anschell, who has defended reality TV cases and chairs the ABA Young Lawyers Division Media Law Committee. Anschell says courts will need to look at these cases one by one to determine if a line has been crossed. "By itself, the fact that a hidden camera is used doesn’t in any way establish liability," he says.
Attorney Sandra S. Baron, executive director of the New York-based Media Law Resource Center, agrees. Baron says these cases aren’t as common as one might think, especially considering the number of reality TV programs on the air and planned for release.
"There’s a lot of attention being paid to the lawsuits being filed, but in the end, when you count them up, there are really not a lot of them," Baron says. That doesn’t mean, however, that the litigation won’t have an impact. Baron expects producers will adjust programming and production to avoid liability. "For the most part, real pain, real suffering and real injury is not considered to be good television," she says.
It may take a while for the market and the courts to decide what’s too scary or too risky for reality TV. The insurance industry is responding to these programs with caution, but there have been no major verdicts to lend guidance.
"There is a perception that the new type of entertainment programming has a creepiness factor that leads underwriters to think that they can’t predict what’s going to happen," says Chad Milton, a senior vice president for media business at Marsh, an insurance brokerage organization. Without being able to assess what could go wrong and what the law is going to be, Milton says underwriters will simply be "more cautious about what they’re willing to insure."
SCARED AND SCARRED BY REALITY TV
Lawsuits Claim Pranks Take Entertainment to a Painful New Level
BY MOLLY McDONOUGH
Los Angeles resident Kara Blanc thought her friends were taking her to a swank Hollywood industry party. On the way, their car purportedly stalled on a dark deserted road outside the city. Blanc then saw what she thought was an alien attacking and killing her companions. They screamed for her to run to a nearby canyon to escape, at which point she claims she suffered severe physical and emotional injuries resulting in repeated hospitalizations.
Turns out, the experience was scripted as part of a new reality TV show. Blanc says she became the unwitting star of an episode of "Scare Tactics," set to premiere April 4 on the Sci-Fi Channel. The show uses hidden cameras to capture people’s reactions to scenarios, including alien abductions, ghost encounters and other supernatural phenomena.
Blanc sued the cable channel for negligence. She’s not alone. Lawsuits like Blanc’s are getting national attention and hiking the costs of liability insurance for these programs, industry experts say. News reports abound about similar cases, including that of a fitness trainer who sued the PAX TV network’s "Candid Camera" after he was run through an airport X-ray machine. In another, a woman sued CBS after appearing in a pilot of a "Fear Factor"-like show called "Culture Shock." She was suspended upside down in a harness for 40 minutes.
Named in Blanc’s suit are production company Tri-Crown Productions Inc.; Sci-Fi; series producers and creators Scott Hallock and Kevin Healy; and Blanc’s friends Matthew Mertha and Travis Draft, who allegedly set Blanc up for the cameras.
Blanc has asked the Los Angeles County Superior Court for punitive damages and an injunction barring production of the show and the airing of any planned episodes. Blanc v. Tri-Crown Productions, No. BC290440.
"The conduct of the defendants is outrageous, and we believe the jury will award extensive damages," says Stephen Warren Solomon, Blanc’s Playa Del Rey, Calif., attorney. He declined to discuss specifics of the case.
A spokeswoman for the Sci-Fi Channel says the prank featuring Blanc will not be shown. "It is not going to air, and never was going to air," Hali Simon says. The show’s practice is to film several pranks and air the best of the lot, she says, adding that another mock alien encounter is slated to air instead of Blanc’s.
The idea behind the show is for friends and relatives to set up loved ones in elaborate science-fiction-related pranks. In keeping with other reality programs, "Scare Tactics" will feature a veteran TV star as its host: Shannen Doherty of "Beverly Hills 90210" and "Charmed" fame.
Shows that use hidden cameras or rely on eliciting fear from participants can be the most risky to insure, though it remains to be seen how the courts will handle lawsuits against them.
"The use of a hidden camera as a dramatic or comic device goes all the way back to ‘Candid Camera,’ " says Los Angeles entertainment lawyer Jonathan H. Anschell, who has defended reality TV cases and chairs the ABA Young Lawyers Division Media Law Committee. Anschell says courts will need to look at these cases one by one to determine if a line has been crossed. "By itself, the fact that a hidden camera is used doesn’t in any way establish liability," he says.
Attorney Sandra S. Baron, executive director of the New York-based Media Law Resource Center, agrees. Baron says these cases aren’t as common as one might think, especially considering the number of reality TV programs on the air and planned for release.
"There’s a lot of attention being paid to the lawsuits being filed, but in the end, when you count them up, there are really not a lot of them," Baron says. That doesn’t mean, however, that the litigation won’t have an impact. Baron expects producers will adjust programming and production to avoid liability. "For the most part, real pain, real suffering and real injury is not considered to be good television," she says.
It may take a while for the market and the courts to decide what’s too scary or too risky for reality TV. The insurance industry is responding to these programs with caution, but there have been no major verdicts to lend guidance.
"There is a perception that the new type of entertainment programming has a creepiness factor that leads underwriters to think that they can’t predict what’s going to happen," says Chad Milton, a senior vice president for media business at Marsh, an insurance brokerage organization. Without being able to assess what could go wrong and what the law is going to be, Milton says underwriters will simply be "more cautious about what they’re willing to insure."