Appeals court scraps $1m defamation lawsuit over American Hustle microwave scene

A California appeals court has snuffed out a $1 million lawsuit over a scene in the 2013 flick American Hustle whe-re Jennifer Lawrence’s c-haracter tells her husband that microwaves make food less nutritious.

“It’s not bullsh*t. I read it in an article. Look, by Paul Brodeur,” Lawrence says in the scene.

Brodeur, an investigative science writer at The New Yorker, brought a defamation lawsuit against Sony’s Columbia Pictures and other producers behind the film in 2014, claiming the movie damaged his reputation by referencing him as the source of the alarmist microwave fact.

As the Academy Award nominated film, loosely based on the FBI’s ABSCAM sting operation in the ‘80s, is based on some fact, it’s suggested some may believe the Brodeur reference to be true.

But while Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Terry Green gave the lawsuit the green light last April, California appeals court justice Elizabeth Grimes this week reversed that ruling and questioned the strength of Brodeur’s defamation complaint.

“The microwave oven scene plainly drew on an issue of public interest in the 1970s, and plaintiff was an integral part of that issue at the time,” Grimes states, according to The Hollywood Reporter. Grimes also states Brodeur failed to prove he ever held a firm opinion on the dangers of microwaving food.

Amy Adams, Bradley Cooper, Jeremy Renner, Christian Bale and Jennifer Lawrence in American Hustle.Source:AP

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Brodeur referenced a 1978 interview inPeople magazine whe-re he was asked if there was any danger eating food cooked by microwaves, and he responded: “None of that is known”. But it wasn’t strong enough to prove his stance.

In her final opinion, Grimes and two other justices decided the comment in the scene isn’t defamatory and that audiences would not take anything Lawrence’s c-haracter said seriously. Green’s ruling f-rom last April was reversed and it was directed that an order be entered dismissing the case.

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“American Hustle is, after all, a farce,” the opinion reads. “The stage was set at the beginning of the film. (‘Some of this actually happened,’ is the line that appears on screen to start things off, and it sets the tone perfectly.)

“The c-haracter who utters the allegedly defamatory statement is portrayed throughout the movie as ‘slightly unhinged’ and ‘a font of misinformation,’ and Irving and Rosalyn both refer to the microwave oven as the ‘science oven’. We doubt any audience member would perceive any of Rosalyn’s dialogue as assertions of objective fact.”