The relationship
between comic actor Laura Kightlinger and
queer director Mike White is going to the dogs, reports
the Los Angeles Times.
Kightlinger is
suing her old pal White--best known for directing
Jennifer Aniston in The Good Girl--over
his latest film, Year of the Dog, starring
Molly Shannon, which he both wrote and directed.
Kightlinger claims that film's plot of a single woman
becoming an animal activist after losing her pet was
originally her idea and that there was an understanding
between the two that if White made a film, Kightlinger
would be compensated for the idea. White denies there
any agreement was made.
Years ago, when
the two were neighbors, Kightlinger showed White her
script about a single woman who became involved in animal
rights after her cat ran away. White's
film--which has grossed an
unimpressive $1.5 million at the box office--is
about a woman who becomes an animal-rights activist
after her dog is killed.
"They are totally
different scripts," White told the Los Angeles Times.
"I know there is a similarity in the sense that [the
female leads] both have pets that they care about, but
beyond that, everything she is saying that is similar
seems like a stretch to me."
The two actors
(Kightlinger stars in IFC's The Minor
Accomplishments of Jackie Woodman and previously
appeared in Will & Grace, while White has
acted in his own films Chuck and Buck and
School of Rock) no longer speak. They both
contend their scripts are based on their own experiences.
Kightlinger has a dog and two cats; White owns two cats
and two dogs. Kightlinger's suit was filed in October
and will soon enter the deposition phase. (The
Advocate)
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