Knocked Up: Anatomy of a media 'controversy'

Lately I've been following the story of how Canadian 'journalist' Rebecca Eckler is suing the makers of the movie Knocked Up for plagiarizing her own book, titled Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-be. "Following" isn't exactly the most accurate word, though; it would suggest that I was paying attention to the story of my own free will. Instead, it seems like the Canadian media has decided that the story is worth mentioning. While everything started with Eckler's own piece in Maclean's magazine (which I'll get to in a minute), the story has since been picked up by CBC.ca (Nicole also posted the story in Facebook), ran on the front of the Globe and Mail's Entertainment section yesterday (read the comments—they're great), and appeared on CBC radio this afternoon. I first read about the story this weekend on Man vs. Clown!, who cited Wikipedia as his source. (So yes, all things go back to Wikipedia after all.) Finally, I know the story has made the American big-time because it's been picked up by the mother of all gossip sites, Defamer (again, read the hilarious comments. It makes me feel like I don't need to make this post any longer. But I will).

While I am not a lawyer specializing in copyright infringement or anything, I do teach undergraduate university courses in English and in Film Studies, meaning that I've become very good at spotting plagiarism. And frankly, the case is pretty thin for the following reasons:

1. Eckler notes that the cover of the screenplay and the cover of her book featured identical images of a martini class with a soother on the stem. If indeed the filmmakers were stealing the idea, why would they call attention to the book by using the exact same image cover image? Don't people usually try to hide the sources from which they steal?

2. I quote from the Maclean's article: "what got me was the fact that 'Alison' was an up-and-coming television reporter; in my book I was an up-and-coming newspaper reporter." I'll let Peter field this one: "Entertainment journalist? Since when does Hollywood make movies about people in the entertainment industry? Clearly a rip-off." (From his Facebook comment)

3. In both works, the man with the successful sperm is Jewish and Canadian. Eckler's fiancé is Jewish and Canadian. Seth Rogen, the actor who plays the impregnator in the movie, happens to be Jewish and Canadian. Apatow tends to put real life details into his movies, such as using actors' first names as their characters' names. Also, being Jewish and being Canadian are not rare states of being. And the chances of someone being both? Pretty good, actually.

4. Eckler cites common experiences of pregnancy such as taking the pregnancy test multiple times (which the titular character in Murphy Brown did when she was pregnant, too! Maybe Eckler could retroactively sue Diane English!) and having a female best friend/sounding board with screaming children. Really, it just makes the book sound rather generic and makes me wonder how the movie deals with such banal subject matter.

5. Penis jokes. The screenplay contains one and Eckler's book contains a similar one. Because penis jokes are so uncommon.

The case is specious and I suspect the Canadian media might be publicizing the case to inspire ridicule for a relatively successful writer (a columnist, two books published) who few seem to respect. A case in point:

This afternoon I heard Eckler interviewed by Jian Gomeshi on his CBC radio show Q (after she had directed all questions to her lawyer in yesterday's Globe piece. That was a quick turnaround). At first I was pissed that airtime was being wasted on the story, but as the interview progressed, it became clear that as neutral as the questions were in their phrasing, Gomeshi was having none of it. After letting Eckler rehash her complaints from the Maclean's piece and (tastelessly) invoke a pseudo-patriotic "I'm a little Canadian against the big Hollywood industrial-judicial complex" stance, he asked what any logical person would ask, which was whether the examples Eckler provided were common incidents in many pregnant women's experiences. He also noted that Eckler had tried to sell the movie rights to her own book and asked if she was upset that the movie's release now meant that she couldn't release her own movie titled Knocked Up, implying (though never stating) that the law suit was in part motivated by sour grapes. Finally, Gomeshi did what no other journalist to this point has done, which was consult a second source (a second source? how revolutionary!). He interviewed an entertainment lawyer who had read the Maclean's piece. The lawyer basically stated that Eckler's case was thin and that there was little chance that she would win. I savoured every moment.
The podcast for the show should be on the CBC website tomorrow. It's worth checking out.

And what do I think? I partly hate myself for getting dragged into what is clearly a publicity ploy (she just happens to have a new book out, don't you know) but I cannot stand by and watch someone besmirch the reputation of Canadians, women, and journalists all in one go.

I also cannot believe the amount of attention one lawsuit has garnered. While the very critical part of my brain wonders if there is some latent misogyny at work in how much everyone is dumping on Eckler, I also feel that it might be partly justified. Eckler's big break came when she was hired to be the National Post's answer to the Globe and Mail's Leah McLaren, who is essentially a copy of Sex and the City's Carrie Bradshaw, a fictional sex/relationship columnist in New York City. Eckler and McLaren play, to different extents, at being the coquette, a woman who flaunts or manipulates her sexuality to get what she wants without realizing that she is reinforcing rather than subverting gender expectations. By positioning herself as the voice of a generation, Eckler (and likewise McLaren) becomes representative of young women, becomes Every-young-woman, and frankly, if young women were as deluded and self-centered as Eckler seems to be in her Maclean's piece, I'd hate them, too.

God, this is a long post. I think I have a fraught relationship with the media's fraught relationship with women.