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Showtime‘s defeat of a lawsuit over Billions brought by a hedge fund performance coach has been affirmed by a federal appeals court.
In December 2018, Denise Shull sued Showtime, CBS, co-creator Andrew Ross Sorkin and others involved with the series, alleging that the character Wendy Rhoades (played by Maggie Siff) was an “unauthorized rip-off” of a fictionalized version of herself from her book Market Mind Games: A Radical Psychology of Investing, Trading, and Risk. She also alleged Sorkin asked her to help develop the character in 2015, but she was never compensated.
In September 2019, U.S. District Judge George Daniels dismissed the suit, finding the nature of the works and the women themselves aren’t substantially similar. Shull asked Daniels to vacate his judgment and allow her to file an amended complaint, but the court declined.
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In January, Shull took the fight to the 2nd Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals, which on Monday agreed there’s no substantial similarity and affirmed Daniels’ decision.
“The plot of Market Mind Games, to the extent there is one, is wholly dissimilar from that of Billions. Likewise, the similarities that exist between Dr. Rhoades in Billions and the fictional version of Shull in Market Mind Games — namely their gender and occupation — are generalized and non-protectible,” states the summary order, which is embedded below. “Bearing these and other distinctions in mind, the total concept and feel of Market Mind Games is quite different from that of Billions: Whereas Market Mind Games is an academic book that draws on fictional stories to illustrate Shull’s ideas, Billions is an entirely fictional serial television drama that, as the district court described it, seeks to portray ‘the drama that lies in the age-old trifecta of money, power, and sex.'”
A spokesman for Shull on Monday sent The Hollywood Reporter this statement in response to the decision: “Ms. Shull is disappointed but not surprised as the misdirected focus of the court was on the comparison of the total works of Billions and Market Mind Games. This was never the allegation. Regardless, the character of Wendy Rhoades in Billions shares numerous personal and professional characteristics with Ms. Shull and often borrows her coaching advice from Ms. Shull’s book. It is not disputed that the creators of Billions asked for Ms. Shull’s help and that Maggie Siff repeatedly asked questions of Ms. Shull. How could their first coaching words be virtually identical and both be from Ohio if Ms. Shull were not the model for Wendy? It is no accident that the public consistently recognizes Wendy to be copied from Ms. Shull’s work. The Court may not see it, but the court of actual public opinion does.”
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