Actor Sues Carl Karcher Over Commercials: Actor-writer...

Actor Sues Carl Karcher Over Commercials: Actor-writer Benjamin Stein sued Carl Karcher Enterprises, alleging that the fast-food maker unfairly used another actor in commercials to copy a character Stein had developed. The Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit alleges that Stein made several commercials using a character he created in the hit movie “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off,” in which Stein lectures in his “own unique, monotonous, nasal, repetitive, nerdy and slightly insane way.” Stein says Della Femina McNamee, an ad agency and a defendant in the suit, wanted him to do some commercials for Carl Karcher but he refused because they would not pay him enough. He alleges that the defendants unfairly competed with him and infringed on his right to publicity. The suit seeks unspecified damages and an injunction to stop the commercials from being broadcast. (Court Case No. BC009945. Filed Sept. 17, 1990)