De Niro, Pacino sue watchmaker for cross-promotion gone awry

A bunch of things went wrong on the way to Righteous Kill, a big-screen serial-killer thriller that brought Al Pacino and Robert De Niro together for the first time in more than a decade. In brief, there was hammy overacting, a convoluted script, a Razzie nomination and an embarrassing 21 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Now, the two A-list actors are suing the film's domestic distributor, Overture Films, and German watch marketer Tutima Inc. for something else they say went awry: a cross-promotion that allegedly used their likenesses without their consent.
  Tutima had a role in the fall '08 movie, with the vintage-looking, aviator-inspired Flieger Chronograph F2 model sitting visibly on Pacino's wrist in a number of scenes. (A New York cop sporting a $3,600 watch? Just one of many head-scratching moments in the Jon Avnet-directed flick). The timepiece also had a loving, full-frame screen shot, which seemed like a setup for a plot point but didn't turn out to have anything to do with the story. The Oscar-winning actors filed suit in U.S. District Court in Manhattan, claiming a Tutima print ad and Web site promotion used their pictures and movie clips and falsely implied that they endorsed the brand. The two are well known among Hollywood dealmakers for not being particularly tie-in friendly, especially if they're not getting paid.

—Posted by T.L. Stanley