New Girl isn't so new, claims plagiarism lawsuit

Two screenwriters have launched a lawsuit claiming the hit American sitcom New Girl is a rip-off from a pilot they developed.

In the writ, Stephanie Counts and Shari Gold say that the hit comedy is based on a script they wrote for a series called Square One.

According to the lawsuit: ‘Any differences between the Square One scripts and New Girl are so small and insignificant that they cannot be afforded copyright protection, and are, in fact, nothing more than transparent attempts to hide defendants’ blatant plagiarism.’

The 92-page complaint published on The Hollywood Reporter’s website, alleges that their agents at William Morris Endeavor secretly passed their script to producers, who were represented by the same company.

They say their 2006 script was based on ‘Stephanie’s real-life experience when she discovered her husband was having an affair, leading her to move into a three-man bachelor pad’ with her brother, a Hollywood stuntman, and two of his friends.

It goes on to claim several further similarities including:

• ‘The name of the protagonist’s unfaithful beau in each work is Spencer’
• ‘In each work there is a cynical roommate who is a bartender’
• ‘The best friend in each work is named “CeCe” or has the initials “C.C.”
• ‘The insecure roommate in each work poses in a hyper-masculine way’
• ‘The protagonist’s boss in each script is dowdy and overly controlling.’

The lawsuit claims Counts and Gold once proposed Zooey Deschanel for the lead, but the idea was dropped as the producer did not know who the actress was.

They claim the alleged plagiarism first came to light in February 2011, when the writers learned of a show in development called Chicks and Dicks, which ‘sounds remarkably similar to Square One’. It's alleged that Chicks and Dicks became New Girl, which has aired on Channel 4 in the UK.

The credited author of New Girl – which Elizabeth Meriwether, a WME client, who is one of the co-defendants in the lawsuit, which seeks unspecified damages, credit on the series and an injunction against any further filming and distribution of the show,

Neither Fox nor WME have commented on the case.

Published: 18 Jan 2014