[Bob Dole]

Originally Posted by AChiOhSnap

Hi everyone,

On the O.C. last night (I know you were all watching Grey's instead), there was a little guest role of a rich, young obnoxious trophy wife. The character talked about how she loved to party, described herself as a "total alcoholic" and that she loved to go back to her college sorority to "party" and do shooters with her sorority sisters. One of the other characters expressed surprise that she would still go back to party with her sorority after graduating. The trophy wife character then named a real NPC sorority and said "A member in college, a member for life."

What is the legality of having a ficitious character belong to a real GLO? Are GLO names copyrighted? I know Charlotte on SATC was a Kappa but nothing about her characterization would really be defamatory to Kappa. The OC character was portrayed as an irresponsible mother, a bimbo, just an all around obnoxious rich sorority girl type. It's not like the character used some nickname like "Sigma" which could represent any GLO with "Sigma" in the name. Could the writers of a TV show or movie get sued for using the name of a real GLO in a defamatory way? What do you all know about this sort of thing?

Sorry if this has been discussed before but I didn't find anything when I searched.

If that stereotype is true, which I assume you believe so, because you used it to describe her. Did they not accurately portray her character? It's social commentary, I don't think a sorority will go head to head with a major media corporation.