Leon Bennett / Boudrol Choucrot / SOPA Images / LightRocket / Jabin Botsford / Getty Images
It seems like George Santos has never met a camera or twist he didn't like, except when it came to Jimmy Kimmel.
Lacking any sense of irony, the ousted former GOP congressman from New York today hit the late-night host, ABC and Disney with claims of fraud and copyright infringement over Kimmel's admission of manipulating and pranking Santos via the personal celebrity messaging site Cameo.
“At the heart of this dispute lies the intentional deception and wrongful appropriation of Plaintiff’s digital content by Defendants, organized through the Cameo.com platform, where celebrities and public figures are intended to communicate with their fans through personalized video messages,” it declares. Santos' jury requested that the complaint be filed Saturday in federal court in Empire State.
“Defendants openly admitted to deceiving Plaintiff under the guise of fandom, soliciting custom videos and then broadcasting them on national television and across social media channels for commercial gain – actions that blatantly violate the original agreement and constitute clear copyright infringement.”
Specifically, Santos and his lawyers claim that Cameo's fine print terms of service do not allow users/customers to put their purchased video on national television. The fraud allegation is because “Defendant Kimmel misrepresented himself and his motives to induce Plaintiff to create custom videos for the sole purpose of capitalizing on and mocking Plaintiff's social personality.”
Obviously, considering Santos as a public figure, given his short lifespan and the scandals of his year in Congress, that's one way to look at it.
Out of his regular gig and income since on December 1 of last year he became only the sixth House member to be expelled in the country's history, the posh Santos is seeking at least $750,000 from Kimmel and the Mouse House. Additionally, on the subject of the HBO biopic (or not), Santos and his attorneys Mancilla & Fantone want preliminary and permanent injunctions to prevent the embarrassing Cameo videos from being broadcast, published, viewed, or even talked about ever again. They also want to “determine the defendants' actual compensatory damages, punitive damages, and loss of profits at trial, as well as interest.”
AKA – give me a few million dollars.
Neither representatives for former and future Oscar host Kimmel nor Disney responded to Deadline's request for comment on Santos' suit. If and when they do, we will update.
Now the truth is that Kimmel has been laughing at Santos on Cameo for laughs for months.
Under a pseudonym By Chris Kitts On December 6, Kimmel paid Santos $400 to congratulate a fake friend on his win in the Clearwater Florida Beef Eating Contest. On the same day, under the name “Jane,” Kimmel paid Santos to praise Hugh's fake mother for successfully cloning “Adolf's beloved Schnauzer.” On December 7, in the role of “Uncle Joe” (homage to Biden?), Kimmel pushed Santos to praise his fake blind niece for passing her driving test. The fake request added: “However, the day after she got her licence, she got into a really bad car accident, so if you could also wish her a speedy recovery that would be great.” “She's live and she's very upset — but with the help of Jesus and President Trump, she'll be back on the road soon!”
And there was more.
“I couldn't resist,” Kimmel told his audience on December 7, 2023, in a monologue clip that has since been viewed nearly 1.7 million times on YouTube. “So, I sent George on Cameo a number of different ridiculous requests,” he continued. “I'll be handing these out over the next week. I didn't say this was from me. I just wrote it and sent it to see if Santos would say it?”
The answer is yes it will – as you can see in the clip below starting at the 6:52 mark:
In fact, with Santos bragging last month about how much money he's made from Cameo since being kicked out of Congress, today's lawsuit should come as no surprise — Kimmel literally asked for it.
“I sent him a bunch of crazy video requests because I wanted to see what he would and wouldn't read, and I showed some of them live on Thursday, and now he's asking me for $20,000 to get paid.” “Trade price,” Kimmel said at the top of his December 11 presentation. “Can you imagine if I got sued by Jorge Santos for fraud? I mean how good would that be? It would be a dream come true.”
At the intersection of DC and Hollywood, dreams clearly do come true.
“Infuriatingly humble web fan. Writer. Alcohol geek. Passionate explorer. Evil problem solver. Incurable zombie expert.”
