Using celebrity names in dialogue = illegal?

Hello,

Once again, I realize that no one here is a lawyer (I don't think) and I will probably end up having to talk to one locally (at £100 or £150/hr) but I'd still like people's opinions:

Would it be necessary to get permission from the people themselves to say the following names (as examples) in a scripted film:

- Gloria Steinam
- Brad Pitt
- Al Pacino
- Bill Clinton

Basically, do you need to get permission to say the name of a famous person IN your film?

My initial reaction was "of course not" but after the recent conversations with Guy, I'm worried that I'll have to take all the celebrity names out too :(

What do you think?

Red

p.s. Obviously the issue of defamation could also come up. But, at this stage, I'm simply wondering about using the names themselves.
p.p.s. Yep, this is my last question covering legal issues :)

Hello,

Basically, do you need to get permission to say the name of a famous person IN your film?



I suppose I'll have to answer this, with what I've found out thus far.

It certainly appears that this would be fine. It's okay to say the following in your scripted dialogue:

"I saw Jerry Seinfeld yesterday." (for ex.)

The problem is when you say something like:

"Paris Hilton is stupid"

That could be considered defamation. But simply USING the name is fine.

To continue the defamation point, you could change the above to:

"I think Paris Hilton is stupid"

Which you could probably get away with... but maybe it's best to avoid those situations all together.

Nevertheless, simply saying a famous person's name shouldn't be a problem.

Red

p.s. OBVIOUSLY I AM NOT A LAWYER AND I REALLY HAVE NO IDEA WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT. PLEASE DO NOT FOLLOW THIS ADVICE.

If this crap keeps up, soon the colour blue is going to be copyrighted. This is getting truly rediculous....free speech seems to be getting quite pricey...