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Second Circuit Affirms Dismissal of Wolf of Wall Street Defamation Suit

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a defamation action brought against production and distribution defendants over the movie The Wolf of Wall Street. Greene v. Paramount Pictures Corp., 19-135. The film, starring Leonard DiCaprio and directed by Martin Scorsese, was based on a memoir by Jordan Belfort, co-founder of the discredited securities firm Stratton Oakmont. Plaintiff Andrew Greene — who worked at Stratton Oakmont as general counsel and corporate finance head, and was a key, unflattering character in Belfort's book — alleged he was defamed in the movie by being "Nicky Koskoff," who the defendants argued was a composite character of several Stratton Oakmont employees. The U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of New York granted summary judgment for the defendants by finding they "did not act with knowledge or reckless disregard for whether Koskoff was 'of and concerning' Plaintiff, and thus, that they did not act with actual malice." In its affirmance, the Second Circuit noted of the vetting process for the film: "[D]efendants' representatives spoke to a number of people, including Belfort, and read the Book and numerous news accounts of the events depicted in the Film. They spoke to screenwriter Terence Winter, who advised that he had reduced 'the number of characters [featured in the Book] by creating various composite characters who did not correspond to any single human being." The appeal court further found: "[N]o reasonable viewer of the Film would believe that defendants intended the Koskoff character to be a depiction of Greene. The most obvious point is that there is no character named Andrew Greene … in the Film. Moreover, the record shows that defendants knew that the Koskoff character was a fictitious character who was a composite of three different people depicted in the Book. For example, in the Film the Koskoff character worked as a broker at Stratton who works on the trading floor. Greene, on the other hand, was the head of the Corporate Finance Department who did not work on the trading floor." The Second Circuit then pointed to the film's "disclaimer making clear that characters in the Film are fictionalized."