A lawsuit against 'New Girl' creators claims Fox comedy series is 'blatant plagiarism' of unproduced script entitled 'Square One'

Last week, a new lawsuit against Fox's hit Zooey Deschanel comedy New Girl was made public. This suit against the show's creator, Elizabeth Meriweather, and the other producers claims the refreshingly funny show ripped off characters from another screenplay entitled Square One. The plaintiffs in this lawsuit and the writers of Square One, Stephanie Counts and Shari Gold, are saying New Girl is "blatant plagiarism."

"Any differences between the Square One scripts and New Girl are so small and insignificant that they cannot be afforded copyright protection, and are, in fact, nothing more than transparent attempts to hide Defendants' blatant plagiarism," the lawsuit claims. "These differences are more akin to eraser marks or ink blots on Stephanie and Shari's creation and cannot be treated as original expression."

The Hollywood Reporter reports:

The complaint offers several pages of claimed similarities. Among them: "both protagonists are awkward, quirky women around the age of 30;" "the plot of both works revolves around the protagonist moving in with three guys;" "the three new guy roommates in each work have identical personality traits;" "the best friend in each work is named 'CeC'" or has the initials 'C.C.;'" and "the protagonists are both sexually inexperienced."

"On February 17, 2011, Stephanie and Shari become dismayed when, for the first time, they hear that their work Square One appears to have been poached," the suit states. "A friend who had read Square One, emails Stephanie and Shari that the logline and summary of a show under development, titled Chicks and Dicks, sounds remarkably similar to Square One ... In January 2012, the Fox Defendants' attorneys make a settlement offer to Stephanie and Shari of approximately $10,000 in an attempt to silence and prevent them from seeking formal legal action against the Fox Defendants, the Chernin defendants, defendant WME, defendant Meriwether, and defendant Meriwether Pictures."

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