The owners of the Pets.com Sock Puppet are suing the owner of another sock puppet.
The sock that roared
April 25, 2000
Internet pet-supply startup Pets.com is accustomed to breaking new ground. First in its sector to raise venture capital and go public. First to buy commercial time during the Super Bowl. And now, first to sue a TV comedy writer for making fun of its "spokespuppet."
In a complaint filed April 12 in U.S. District Court in San Francisco, and obtained by TV Barn, the e-tailer is charging Robert Smigel, the former head writer on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien," with defamation and trade libel for disparaging the sock puppet that is the center of the company's $20 million marketing campaign.
Smigel, as fans of "Late Night" well know, is the author and voice of a foul-mouthed rubber hand puppet named Triumph, the Insult Comic Dog, whose favorite punchline is "... for me to poop on," as in, "This is a fine lawsuit ... for me to poop on!"
Among other appearances, Triumph was featured during the program's fifth anniversary special in 1998 and brought down the house at NBC's upfront presentation to advertisers last spring.
In effect, Pets.com is charging Smigel with using his sock puppet to defame their sock puppet.
Pick To Click: The Wild West Even Wilder at Prison Rodeo
Angola Prison, the Louisiana facility so notoriously aligned with violence and corruption that the federal government took it over for a time in the 1970s, casts its mark indelibly on residents and guests alike. Even those souls lucky enough to be discharged will say, years later, that they still dream about Angola as if they had never left. The prison also has been fertile ground for filmmaker Jonathan Stack, whose film about Angola life, ``The Farm,'' won two Emmys and was nominated for an Oscar in 1999. Stack returned to make "The Wildest Show in the South: Angola Prison Rodeo," which airs in expanded form at 8 p.m. Tuesday on the Discovery channel.
The Angola Prison Rodeo, open to the public, is pretty much as advertised. Prisoners, many of them with little ranching or riding experience, volunteer to ride a bull or play rodeo cowboy, risking life and limb for a $60 top prize. They're also competing for something even more valuable: a rare dose of public approval from the 5,000 free spectators watching them. The rodeo is one of those events that needs little embellishment or packaging: Just turn on your camera and let people talk. You probably haven't seen an event called ``Guts and Glory'' at any other rodeo. That's because it's a competition only rank amateurs with nothing to lose would be crazy enough to enter.
The daily digest ... for April 23, 2000: Catching up with notes from last week, Entertainment Weekly reported in its April 21 issue that the cast of "Friends" are demanding yet another pay hike — reportedly as much as $800,000 per show, including back pay for this season's episodes — and are again locking arms in solidarity. The cast members, who held out for big pay increases the last time their contracts were up, are getting $125,000 per ep currently, but are well aware that in the intervening years NBC and ABC have dangled unbelievable sums of money in front of its star franchises to keep them from closing down ("Seinfeld," "Home Improvement") or moving to another network ("ER") ... As it does every year, CBS has sent the press a handsome preview of its pilots currently in development for possible inclusion in the fall schedules. Therein we find what may be the six most frightening words in the English language: "In this one-hour comedy, Tony Danza ..."
UPN is putting the best face on this season's failures. It's touting a schedule of "original programming throughout the summer months, including all-new episodes of 'Shasta,' 'Dilbert,' 'The Beat,' 'I Dare You! The Ultimate Challenge,' 'Secret Agent Man' and 'WWF Smackdown!'" All but "Smackdown" and midseason show "The Beat" were yanked for low ratings ... The New York Times did a special investigation into possible gender-based questioning on the phone qualifying round of "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire." It found that when the caller indicated he was male (the option of giving your gender was added two months ago), he tended to get more questions about sports and geography, while those identifying themselves as female callers got more questions about movies and nursery rhymes. Executive producer Michael Davies denied the gender skew, but he did say that "openly gay men are killers on this show" because they "have been exposed to both male and female popular culture." And no, there's nothing wrong with that at all ...
Did you catch the appearance Sunday of the first black contestant to make the "Millionaire" hot seat? Dr. Steven Maurice Clark was smooth as butter and reckless as a riverboat gambler as he guessed his way to $125,000, then blew himself out at the quarter-mil question. Here's more on Clark ... Here's confirmation of what I suspected in my review of Leonardo DiCaprio's and President Clinton's televised Earth Day chat for ABC: It was cut way short ...
So long, "Ainsley Harriott." The British cook's American talk show lasted three months ... Ahmad Rashad is in as new host of the caught-on-tape syndicated series "Real TV," beginning next fall. Paramount had wanted a higher-profile host, sez Variety. Rashad replaces the current host, whatever his name is ... Prince Edward is making a holiday movie for Pax TV starring Kathy Ireland, reports Variety. So I guess they aren't getting out of the original production business after all. Pax recently informed the TV Critics Assn. it would not be presenting at the summer confab after all ... Speaking of critics, Tom Shales began his weekly column for trade mag Electronic Media with Monday's edition. Shales, like me, did not give up his day job to write for EM, which is moving its offices from Chicago to L.A. next month and plans to focus more on the entertainment business.