The animated comedy 'Family Guy' is facing a lawsuit from the company who owns the publishing rights to the song 'When You Wish Upon A Star'.
The show, infamous for its generous appropriation of tried-and-tested comic formulae, featured a scene in which the patriarchal protagonist Peter Griffin sang a tune called 'I Need A Jew' in the episode 'When You Wish Upon A Weinstein'.In the episode, Peter decides he needs to hire a Jewish accountant to better organise his finances. He also tries to convert his dim-witted son, Chris, to Judaism in order to make him smarter. It's all rather humorous.
But publishing company Bourne didn't see the humour in the show's nod to Pinocchio, and have filed a suit against the Fox Network and the show's producers for what they claim is an infringement on the rights.
"If you listen to the structure of the lyrics, the song, the name of the episode and how [Peter's] singing out the window to the stars, there's no question they were using the song," Bourne's attorney Paul Fakler said. Fox are yet to comment on the action.
