Creator of 'Star Trek' fan film to square off in court against CBS and Paramount
Also in Tattle: Nicki Minaj and Meek Mill, Greta Van Susteren, Tucker Carlson, J.K. Rowling, Cher, and Kim Burrell
/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-pmn.s3.amazonaws.com/public/OCHQ4ZSPLBGSFBS7PFS44B7E4Q.jpg)
LIVE LONG and prosper.
Unless, that is, you are thinking about prospering off of Star Trek.
Bloomberg reported that CBS and Paramount Pictures will be facing off in court against the makers of "Prelude to Axanar," a Star Trek-inspired, 20-minute, crowd-funded short film that generated 2.7 million YouTube hits.
The short was very detailed in its appropriation - or appreciation - of Star Trek lore, and U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner in Los Angeles said that it does not qualify as "fair use" of the Star Trek copyrighted franchise. Klausner, however, refused to decide the case himself, and so to trial we go.
CBS and Paramount allege filmmaker Alec Peters ripped off "Axanar" from its 50-year-old sci-fi franchise. Peters, who wants to produce a full-length "Axanar" film, says his movie is an original work of parody.
Klausner said he had the mental acuity to use Spock-like reasoning to conclude that "Axanar" was as much actual Star Trek as Trek tribute, but at the Jan. 31 trial, mere human jurors with feelings will have to decide that the two are subjectively similar.
Meek is Nicki-less
E! News says that
Nicki Minaj
and Philly rapper
Meek Mill
will no longer be courtside at the 76ers.
Nicki wrote about the break-up on, where else, Twitter: "To confirm, yes I am single. Focusing on my work & looking forward to sharing it with you guys really soon. Have a blessed New Year."
Meek also confirmed the split via Instagram.
Both made disses about the others' footwear.
Tattle anchor drop
Greta Van Susteren
, who beat
Megyn Kelly
out the door at Fox News, will return to the airwaves at cable news competitor MSNBC.
She will anchor For the Record with Greta Van Susteren weeknights at 6 p.m. The show will come out of Washington, D.C.
* Meanwhile, over at Fox News, Tucker Carlson will take over Kelly's 9 p.m. time slot, in between Bill O'Reilly and Sean Hannity.
The Los Angeles Times reports that Carlson is a personal favorite of 21st Century Fox Executive Chairman Rupert Murdoch.
Carlson's 7 p.m. time period will be filled by a Martha MacCallum-hosted show called The First 100 Days.
TATTBITS
* It seems as if every day Tattle reads another story about
Cher
in which she's dying, near death or tragically spending her final days.
Well, no one told Lifetime.
The Hollywood Reporter says Cher has signed on to star in Flint, a very un-Lifetimey movie about the Flint, Mich., water crisis.
Maybe it's about how the crisis caused a man to cheat on his wife with his child's baby-sitter, who was then turned into a psychopath by the tainted drink.
Actually, Cher will portray a Flint resident whose family is impacted by the water crisis.
But is she stalked by a high school wrestler who has a crush on her?
Katie Couric will be one of the film's executive producers.
* E! News reports that the CW is looking to reboot Charmed, the sexy witches show that ran from 1998-2006.
* J.K. Rowling is not done with the story of "Fantastic Beasts."
The author's Pottermore website announced Thursday that a new edition of the Harry Potter spin-off Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them will come out in March. The book, which arrives four months after the hit film adaptation, will include a foreword by Rowling writing as Magizoologist Newt Scamander, new artwork and a batch of new beasts. Proceeds will be donated to Comic Relief and Lumos, Rowling's charity for children placed in institutions.
The original book came out in 2001.
* Texas Southern University radio station KTSU has pulled the plug on gospel star/preacher Kim Burrell's radio show "Bridging the Gap" after a video surfaced in which Burrell made homophobic comments, according to ABC News in Houston.
At a Houston church, Burrell recently preached that "The perverted homosexual spirit and the spirit of delusion and confusion ... has deceived many men and women." Rolling Stone said she later claimed that homosexuals would "die in 2017."
As will radio shows.
- Daily News wire services
contributed to this report.
215-854-5678 @DNTattle