Documentary on rich kids can be distributed

By The Associated Press

10.22.02

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NEW YORK — A Manhattan judge says the rich are different — partly because they are newsworthy — and therefore an heir to the Johnson & Johnson medical fortune may release a documentary film about his wealthy peers.

State Supreme Court Justice Shirley Kornreich ruled that Jamie Johnson, a 23-year-old New York University film student, had the right to distribute "Born Rich," a documentary that features 11 children of wealthy families.

The movie, which Johnson has submitted to the Sundance film festival, includes interviews with Georgina Bloomberg, daughter of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Ivanka Trump, model daughter of the real estate developer Donald Trump, and Juliet Hartford, an A&P supermarket heiress.

The judge's ruling dismissed a lawsuit filed against Johnson by Luke Weil, 22, who said in court papers that he was "tricked" into taking part in a project that "embarrassed" and "humiliated" him and his family.

Weil, whose father ran Autotote, a gaming-technology company, said that on three dates in 2000 he signed releases that allowed Johnson to use an interview with him for what he thought was solely a school project.

Weil's court papers complained that Johnson "publicly and maliciously" referred to him as an "'heir of a gaming operation,' thus making him an object of disdain, derision and obloquy."

The judge said the releases Weil signed clearly stated that the documentary was not a school project but rather a commercial undertaking for a professional studio in Beverly Hills, Calif.

And in light of the unambiguous language in the three releases, the judge said, Weil cannot claim to have been tricked or defrauded.

"What (Weil) seeks here is a prior restraint on (Johnson's) First Amendment right to distribute an informative sociological documentary of considerable public interest," the judge said. "Prior restraints of the sort requested here are presumptively unconstitutional."

Johnson's lawyer, Peter Skolnick, said he was not surprised by the judge's decision, "given that the U.S. Supreme Court has never upheld a prior restraint on pure speech in this country's history."

Skolnick said Johnson was editing the film and hoped to have it accepted for exhibit at Sundance in November.

Weil's lawyer, Michael Heller, did not return repeated telephone calls for comment yesterday.