** From Robert White to Sharon Skelly on 05 Sep 96  08:45:13
 ** Hiaasen vs Disney
 >like the way Hiaasen takes the same lunacy and stretches it to the absurd.
 
 SS> So do I.  He leaves me ROTFLMAO every time.  I do like Buchanan
 SS> as well, however.  I read somewhere that Disney sued Hiaasen after
 SS> _Native Tongue_.  Never heard how it came out, however.
 RW> Sounds like the kind of petty thing that Disney would do. I'm sure old
 RW> Walt is spinning a record speed in his grave. I heard that Hiaasen was
 RW> being sued by the bass fishing association because of his book that
 RW> sideswiped the 'sport' of professional bass fishing, I think the book
 RW> was called 'Double Wammy'. 
 RW> Disney & the Pro bass fishermen must be pretty insecure about
 RW> themselves if they have to sue a relatively unknown to the mass
 RW> audience writer like Hiaasen. 
 Not insecure, exactly -- just fiercely protective of their intellectual 
 property.  I heard a story once from a writer who was (very) briefly a 
 story editor at Disney.  Soon after being hired, he and some like- 
 minded souls were having lunch in the cafeteria.  For amusement, they 
 were casting a porno film featuring the Disney characters: Mickey as 
 director, Goofy as cameraman, Minnie as female lead...
 Unknown to them, a set of very senior Disney execs was sitting at the 
 next table.  When they got back from lunch, they discovered their 
 cubicles no longer existed, and pink slips were waiting for them at the 
 department secretary's desk.
 On a related note, the late cartoonist Wally Wood (who worked for 
 Disney at one point) once did a hilarious poster called _The Disneyland 
 Memorial Orgy_.  It featured all the Disney characters in 
 uncharacteristic behavior: Mickey shooting up heroin, Minnie as a 
 whore, Donald being shat upon by Dumbo passing over head, Tinkerbelle 
 doing a strip tease for Peter Pan and the Lost Boys, etc.  A store in 
 Philadelphia got busted for obscenity for selling it.  It came before a 
 jury, but the poster was considered too obscene for the jury to 
 actually see it for themselves, so the Prosecuting Attorney had to read 
 a list of the obscene and salacious activities taking place.  Halfway 
 through the list, he was laughing so hard the Defense Attorney had to 
 finish reading it for him, whereupon the judge threw the case out of 
 court.
  
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