Because he stole my copyrighted campaign for clothing naked horses with horse pants. I proclaimed "a nude horse is a rude horse" in 1959 and had my book about SINA, the Society for Indecency to Naked Animals, published by TRIDENT PRESS ("The Great American Hoax") in 1965.
Paramount Pictures optioned the book for a movie to be produced by Martin Ritt ("Hud") that was to star Jack Lemmon and directed by Carl Reiner. Ira Wallach wrote the screenplay while his Broadway show, "Absence of a Cello," was engaged in a successful run.
Unfortunately, Ritt passed away and the film project was abandoned by Paramount. It was later optioned again by producer Sidney Glazier. He won an Academy Award for his documentary, "The Eleanor Roosevelt Story." However, he didn't like the screenplay that my wife and I had written. so that was strike two.
Enter the arena Woody Allen. He wrote me a letter asking to see the screenplay. We wanted to do another draft. Woody lost interest for other projects he had on back burners. Then Cary Grant expressed interest but became too involved with a movie of his own and Faberge, a company he held an interest in.
Dustin Hoffman's lawyer called during the 90's to inquire about film rights. I met with Dustin's writing staff in New York City. After a few weeks they said they couldn't find the "hook" for developing a movie. That was strike three. We were back at square one.
Suddenly, in 2016, Jimmy Kimmel appeared before the "Sharks" television show with a horse wearing Bermuda shorts and his sidekick, the Mexican midget. They wanted to raise money to clothe animals for the sake of decency! That night, the horse pants saga was displayed again on Jimmy Kimmel's show, without permission, payment or credit to the property rights owner.
Since ABC Television is owned by The Disney Company, they will soon be sued for copyright infringement in a class action lawsuit. Additional plaintiffs are being lined up so that the RICO ACT would prevail. That's a criminal act leading to hefty fines and prison time for the executives.
Filing the lawsuit in Federal Court and obtaining Examinations Before Trial will lead to heavy duty media coverage. So stay tuned!
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