George Santos sues Jimmy Kimmel for duping him into making Cameo videos
By Daniel Wu, WaPo - February 18, 2024 at 10:06 p.m. EST
George Santos sued late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel on Saturday, accusing Kimmel of hiding his identity while soliciting videos from the disgraced ex-congressman over the celebrity video-sharing service Cameo, which Kimmel then used to mock Santos on air.
Kimmel announced in December that he pranked Santos by sending him fictitious requests on Cameo, which allows users to request brief greeting videos from celebrities and popular figures. Kimmel, allegedly using accounts not under his real name, asked Santos to speak on several bizarre topics, including congratulating a blind woman for passing a driving test and praising a man for winning an eating contest after devouring six pounds of ground beef.
Santos obliged, not knowing Kimmel was the recipient, and Kimmel aired the videos on his late-night talk show in December in a segment called “Will Santos Say It?”
Santos alleged Saturday in New York federal court that Kimmel and his show’s producers, ABC and Disney, committed copyright infringement by airing the Cameo videos they requested, which he argued were owned by Santos and not licensed for broadcast on national television. He also alleged that Kimmel committed fraud by creating fake profiles on Cameo to commission Santos’s videos.
Cameo’s terms of service state that videos on the platform are licensed, not sold, and that a personal license grants a recipient limited rights to use a requested video for noncommercial and non-promotional purposes. Cameo’s community guidelines state that users may not sign up using false identities.
Link to video on Twitter/X
Andrew Mancilla, an attorney for Santos, said in a statement to The Washington Post that Kimmel’s humor was “based on manipulation and exploitation.”
Kimmel, ABC and Disney did not immediately respond to a request for comment Sunday evening.
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