The Animal

Question: A long time ago I read something about a lawsuit and some kind of a fake critic — what was it about and was there a resolution?

Answer: The legal case you remember was a class-action suit filed in 2001 by two disgruntled California moviegoers who claimed that ads featuring glowing quotes by "David Manning" of The Ridgefield Press enticed them to see A Knight's Tale under false pretenses. Leaving aside the fact that I think moviegoers who rely on quote ads to make viewing decisions are on a par with diners who let TV commercials suggest where they should eat, the suit turned up the fact that there was no David Manning. Although there is a small Connecticut newspaper called The Ridgefield Press, two advertising executives at Sony Pictures invented critic David Manning out of whole cloth. That also amazes me, given that the field of movie reviewing is read more