Word on the street is that Chris Rock is being sued for stealing Regina Kimbell's idea for Good Hair, and at least one of the ever-growing crop of "black female empowerment" blogs thinks that this is just the latest salvo in the war against black female creativity. Seriously. I sh*t you not. (Judge for yourself and buy the whole docket of the case here.)
Rock is just the latest black man to steal an idea from a sista, you see. First it was Steve Harvey. Then, in some twist of logic, it was Tyler Perry. Now, America's favorite mailroom clerk is in on the conspiracy. The problem with that thesis is that ideas are abstract. You may lift the title of someone's creative work, or even a core idea with impunity, and still be a far cry from plagiarism or appropriation. Great works often inspire other great works along a similar vein. It's not impossible that Rock saw Kimbell's film while researching his own documentary and got inspired, but I doubt there has been a rip-off. Unless Kimbell's film has a comedian riffing off on each scenario Bruno-stylee, her case is gonna come up madd short. How the hell is she gonna be working on a documentary for five years any-damn-way and think someone is not going to beat her to the punch some kinda way? Who do you think you are? Ken Burns?
This is not like the time when Eddie Murphy stole the entire plot of a movie from Art Buchwald. That was outright theft. Her case is more nuanced than that. She wants to convince a judge that two people can't have a similar take on the same subject, in this case a subject as finite and banal as attitudes about black women's hair. There is some idea that Rock is attacking and lampooning black women, when, if the previews are to be believed, he is acting as a Negro Tour Guide through the complexities of the black hair world. He's a comedian, a flawed, unreliable narrator attempting to help the audience make sense of a narrative pocked by irony and scenes of the absurd. Frankly, Kimbell's lawsuit smells like burnt scalp and cheap publicity for her documentary. And I'm not mad at it.
In any event, Rock should sleep well knowing that Kimbell has no case. Do you think she has a case?
Single Father, Author, Screenwriter, Award-Winning Journalist, NPR Moderator, Lecturer and College Professor. Habitual Line-Stepper