Famous Fakes: Looking like the Stars

by Erika Waddell

In September, 2005, a man who looked remarkably like Rolling Stones lead singer Mick Jagger walked into New York City's Spirit nightclub. Within moments, club employees seated him, pampered him like a VIP and sheltered him from fans anxious to say hello or get an autograph. "Jagger" rang up an $800 bar tab and told at least one attractive female patron that he was the famous musician, offering her a part in his newest music video.

The man, of course, was not Jagger, but a fake.

Club director Fedor Banuchi attributes the case of mistaken identity to perfect timing on the look-alike's part. "The [Rolling Stones] tour had just happened, and [Jagger] had been in the area a lot," he says. "It sort of feeds on itself," Banuchi reflects, "because when he came in with one girl, maybe it was just some guy that looked like Mick Jagger. But by the time he was there for 20 minutes, it had to be Mick Jagger because he had bodyguards and an entourage."

With Internet sites like Gawker and Defamer covering anything related to celebrities in great detail, news of star look-alikes using their looks for some sort of gain are on the rise. There's a fake David Cross haunting New York's lower East side scoring free drinks and young tail. A couple of Paris Hilton imposters (including Natalie Reid, left) are practically making a living off of their looks.

But when is it illegal to pretend that you are someone else? Does a celebrity have any legal recourse in the matter?

The most obvious issue involves using a celebrity look-alike in an advertisement.

In New York, it is against the state's civil rights law to use a person's name, picture or portrait for advertising or commercial purposes, without first getting his authorization. In 1983, Rick Kurnit, partner in the law firm Frankfurt Kurnit Klein & Selz, represented a Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis look-alike who had appeared in an advertisement for Christian Dior that featured several actual celebrities and a couple of look-alikes. It was not obvious that "Onassis" was a fake. A New York County Supreme Court judge found that in that context, the look-alike was using Jackie O's image without consent.

Also in New York, Jake Laufer, a partner in Laufer & Halberstam, sued a video rental chain for $10 million on behalf of Woody Allen in 1985 for a similar violation of U.S. federal law. An Allen look-alike had appeared in the company's ads smiling while renting Woody Allen movies. The case was settled out of court for a reported $425,000.

It's not only stealing a star's image that's against the law; musical acts including Bette Midler, Tom Waits and the Spin Doctors have prevailed in court against ad agencies that have used singers and musical styles that sounded nearly identical to the originals.

In California, the statute has been expanded to also protect the use of one's likeness or persona, which means that even if there is no picture of the person, it is still forbidden to use anything recognizable or a signature of that person without consent. In 1993, Vanna White won a lawsuit against Samsung Electronics over their use of a robot turning letters on a game show in a futuristic ad. White claimed that the ad evoked her image, even though Samsung did not use her name or picture.

But outside of advertising and commercial issues, it's not nearly as clear. Rick Kurnit says the key issue is fraud, or whether or not the look-alike has obtained a benefit or a value from someone under false pretenses. "To the extent that someone passes himself off as something else... and he gets anything of value from another person, he's defrauded that person," he says.

So does walking away with $800 in free alcohol make the fake Mick Jagger guilty of fraud? In order to have a fraudulent claim, there must be proof that the look-alike took affirmative action to misrepresent himself. But the imposter never told any bar employees that he was Jagger. "He didn't really say much or ask for anything," says Banuchi. "Everyone just assumed." According to Kurnit, "If you don't say anything to anybody... and you don't fail to correct anyone, then the fact that you look like somebody isn't your fault and you haven't done anything [wrong]. If somebody asks you to sign an autograph and you sign someone else's name, then you've taken affirmative action to mislead." But without such proof, Kurnit says look-alikes can get away with freebies on the argument that clubs like having them because their presence turns heads and creates a buzz.


In regard to the Spirit incident, the club director agrees with this theory. "It ended up working in our favor because we got more press because he was fake than if he had been real," says Banuchi.

According to Kurnit, look-alikes also have the good argument that if people gaze closely enough, it should become obvious that they're not the real thing. "We resemble one another. I don't look just like [Tom Cruise]," says part-time Cruise impersonator Mike Hoagland, 33, of Boston. "I'm not 5'7", I'm 5'10"," he says. "I don't have his nose. I don't have his teeth." Regardless, Jake Laufer doesn't believe the law would punish anyone for getting some free drinks.

But could Mick Jagger sue the imposter? According to Laufer, "There is a claim that can be filed called the right of publicity, or the right of the celebrity to exploit the value of his celebrity, but New York does not recognize the right in and of itself." And Mick Jagger would probably be unsuccessful in a lawsuit with regard to endorsement because there were no commercial elements to the look-alike's big night out. "If the only harm is that Mick Jagger's personal feelings are slighted, New York law does not recognize that. But California law might, under the right of publicity," explains Laufer. "Of course, I am not giving legal advice," Laufer adds.

But there are imposters out there who have darker and illegal intentions. In 1992, the Philadelphia Inquirer reported that a man had been calling women, identifying himself as Howard Stern radio producer Gary Dell'Abate, and offering them money to appear on Stern's show. He would then ask the women personal questions and try to persuade them to meet him to engage in sexual activity. More recently, a New Jersey woman was arrested for posing as Jessica Simpson's assistant, CaCee Cobb, in order to entice designers to send free jewelry, clothing and handbags. She reportedly told companies that Simpson was interested in their products and received more than $12,000 in freebees.

In 2003, a man falsely identified himself as Pearl Jam bassist Jeff Ament, at The Cutting Room bar in New York City. Co-owner Steve Walter says the fake even fooled actress Janeane Garofalo, who had met the real Ament before. "She was performing at the bar and he went up to her and said, 'Remember me? We were on SNL together.' He really played it up and actually got her phone number out of her," he recalled. According to Walter, the fake would also attend fashion shows and convince designers to give him free clothing. The look-alike took his act so far that Pearl Jam's manager caught wind and eventually hired a private investigator to try to stop him.

But what about the people who fake for a living and do so legally? For the purpose of this article, we will use the term "celebrity impersonator" to mean a look-alike who is paid to show up at events and simply look like a celebrity. Impersonators might be hired to mingle or even perform as the stars, but in almost every case, guests are aware that these are fakes. There are jobs where impersonators are hired to create an "is that...?" buzz; however, impersonators usually have agents to protect them from getting involved in sticky legal situations. But impersonators don't stop looking like celebrities once they're off the clock, which is where it can get interesting.

Twenty-three year-old Alyson Bradshaw of Las Vegas is a Britney Spears impersonator who occasionally finds herself in tricky ethical situations outside of work. On the subject of being approached by strangers, "I don't ever say, 'Yes, I'm Britney.' I'll say, 'What do you think?' or just smile and wave," she says. "I think it's fun for [people] because they might never get the chance to meet her... It's their choice whether they want to believe it." Bradshaw's agent at the Lookalike-USA agency educates her on the law so she stays out of trouble. She admits to posing for photos and even signing autographs in her everyday life, but Bradshaw knows better than to sign Spears' name. "I just [sign] my last name sort of scribbley... and it [looks] kind of like Britney," she confesses.

Mike Hoagland, the Cruise impersonator, is also with Lookalike-USA, and he believes that, although he's constantly told that he has the same quirks and mannerisms as Tom Cruise, people know he's not the real thing. "Never when I've been out in public has anybody been fooled," he says. "I'm sure there's some ambiguity in people's minds, but once you come up and see me, I don't look [exactly] like him." He does pose for photos, but claims that these people just want to "wow their husbands and wives," and that "it's really about the fun of it." But Hoagland still takes legal precautions, a smart idea considering how litigious the real Cruise can be. "I won't sign anything as Tom Cruise because I can get in major trouble for that. I might print something and put it in quotes so it's known that I'm not trying to portray myself as Tom Cruise," he says. And when asked if he would ever take advantage of his looks at a nightclub, "It's never happened... But if somebody was giving me the [VIP] treatment, I would probably run with it," Hoagland says. "I would not go out of my way to make sure that somebody thinks I'm him, but I can't say that I would necessarily dissuade someone from carrying on with what they believe."

According to Laufer, the acts of signing autographs and taking photos as celebrities are not punishable by law in the state of New York as long as there are no commercial elements and you are not garnering a monetary benefit. However, when it comes to sexual relations, there is another layer to the law to consider: that of assault. "[Sex with someone who claimed to be someone else] would come in the realm of assault because it's only consensual under affirmatively fraudulent pretenses," says Laufer. He likens this scenario to someone who knows he has a sexually transmitted disease claiming to a prospective partner that he is disease-free. "The other person would not have consented to the relations had they not been affirmatively misled, which is potentially criminal," he explains.

Not everyone enjoys looking famous or tries to take advantage. Actor Devin Harjes, 22, says his striking similarity to Leonardo DiCaprio hinders his professional success and is annoying in his personal life. The Texas native has not only been told he looks like DiCaprio, but also gets Matt Damon, James Van Der Beek, Val Kilmer, and Christian Slater on a daily basis. "[At auditions] they always want the new face, so considering I look like everyone, it doesn't leave much room for anything," he says. Devin works two jobs, one of which is located in touristy Times Square. He claims he can't even walk in the area without people following him, trying to get his attention. "I've learned to walk really fast through big tourist spots," he says. In addition to the annoyance of being hounded by young girls and gay men, Devin says he's also tired of the drunks sending him drinks at bars and the older women who try to fix him up with their daughters: "I don't want anything based off of looking like someone else," he says. "To me, it's more of a nuisance than anything."

(Published on CourtTV.com May 25, 2006)