Lindsay Lohan Wants Pitbull to Pay Up for Lyrical Diss—Does She Really Have a Case?

Mean Girls star sues rapper over song that has a lyric with her name in it.

By Brandi Fowler Aug 19, 2011 10:51 PMTags

First the E-Trade babies felt the wrath of Lindsay Lohan. Now this.

The Mean Girls star is lawyering up once again to defend her good name, this time suing rapper Pitbull for calling her out in his song "Give Me Everything."

So how bad was the diss? And does Lindsay have any chance to win this thing?

Gustavo Caballero/FilmMagic; Toby Canham/Getty Images

In the song, released March 18, Pitbull sings, "I got it locked up like Lindsay Lohan."

And, five months later, the lyric has seriously ticked off the beleaguered actress.

"The problem is they used her name without compensation in the song, and confused the public about whether or not she was a collaborator," Stephanie Ovadia, Lindsay's attorney in the case, exclusively tells E! News.

According to court docs, Lohan asserts that "the lyrics, by virtue of its wide appeal, condemnation, excoriation, disparaging or defamatory statements by the defendants about the plaintiff are destined to do irreparable harm to the plaintiff."

And that's not all.

Lohan also claims that as "a professional actor of good repute and standing in the Screen Actors Guild, [she] is suing under the New York civil rights laws, which protects people from having their name exploited for commercial purposes."

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Notice how she doesn't mention that the lyric defamed her? Because she is a public figure, it's hard to prove defamation in a case like this.

And one media law expert says Lohan will have an uphill battle getting a judge to trump Pitbull's First Amendment protections.

"There is no doubt that the lyrics of the song uses Lohan's name, but the question is whether that use is for a 'commercial purpose,' " says entertainment attorney Don Zachary, who is not involved in the Lohan litigation.

"In my view, I think it is highly unlikely that a New York Court would find that this use was for a commercial purpose."

Instead, Lohan is hoping Pitbull doesn't have the stomach for a long fight and would want to pay up to make the case disappear.

"Ms. Lohan and her attorney probably are banking on the fact that there are sufficient conflicting opinions floating around to give this case some settlement value," Zachary says. "Presumably, the defendants will move to dismiss the case on the grounds that Lohan has not stated a claim for commercial appropriation. If they win that motion, as they should, that will be the end of the matter. If they lose, then a settlement in an undisclosed amount will follow quickly."

Reps for Pitbull have not yet responded to requests for comment. Ne-Yo and Afrojack, who cowrote the song, are also defendants in the case.

In the suit, Lohan is seeking an injunction to stop all further broadcast of the song to go along with unspecified damages.

—Reporting by Sharareh Drury