Use of an actress' physical likeness?

[Jamie_Shindler]

Can I be sued for using an actor / actress's physical likeness for a text-based story, even if I put up disclaimers?

Details:

I'm working on a form of web-television-series where the 'episodes' are almost entirely text; however, there will be "screencaps," faux video-blogs, "showclips" and assorted other visual artwork, including forum icons, banners and "commercials" to be posted on other sites. Two particular actresses were 'cast' for main characters - their video footage was taken from previous movie / TV broadcasts (edited / combined with our own as needed), while still images came from common internet searches. These actresses are decently well-known, but are not connected to the series in any way and (in all likelihood) probably won't even hear about it. All the other actors - mostly undiscovered - are knowingly involved.

If we have multiple disclaimers that explain these specific actresses are not affiliated with the program, would using them still be considered illegal? Would it have an impact on selling series' merchandise, even things without their likenesses on them? At the moment, this is an unpaid / no-charge project, but I'd still like to know the answer.

 

[Michael Wechsler]

What you're doing is complex. It appears you're also taking prior footage which you may or may not own. You're also using look-alikes for the purpose of attracting people who will think you are putting on an episode with a more famous name or image. There are rights of publicity laws, usually strictest in California. But the point is that no matter what disclaimers you put up, you're still going to invite a lawsuit and potential liability. What's the disclaimer supposed to say? You need an attorney to review the entire project before you go live - just my feeling.