Legal Question in Entertainment Law in New York

Re: About using briefly a celebrity's name

Yes or no to a lawyer? You're fiction writers, correct? Just kidding. Almost certainly no, but without reading the specific passage and context, no one can give you an unqualified no. If you're asking that question on this board, you probably don't have an attorney to review your publishing agreement. You might want to give some consideration to that. By the way, most publishers have legal vetting done before publishing so if there's a concern, you'd be asked to remove the offending text.

Re: About using briefly a celebrity's name

If you do not quote extensive passages from other people's works or include photographs or pictures, I think your and your publisher's concern would be primarily possible defamation claims, which may or may not be likely given the context in which you mention various celebrities and public figures. Theoretically there could be invasion of privacy and violation of the right of publicity claims as well but one cannot say anything based on your question.

You naturally do have some First Amendment rights as authors but they are not unlimited. These can be helpful in the context of non-fiction or news reporting. Have an intellectual property attorney review the references or speak to your publisher about having his in-house lawyers deal with that. Remember, though, that your publishing agreement probably holds you responsible for various claims arising from your manuscript and requires you to indemnify the publisher for third party claims against it so you are technically on the hook for any lawsuits arising from your book.

The above reply is in the nature of general information, is not legal advice and should not be relied on as such.