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Archie v. the Veronicas
It is Betty's darkest dream come true: Archie suing Veronica.
Make that, the Veronicas.
Archie Comic Publications, home to the Riverdale High gang of Saturday morning cartoon and comic-book fame, has sued Warner Music Group to stop an Australian sibling act from billing themselves after Mr. Lodge's snobbish, raven-haired daughter.
Jess and Lisa Origliasso, the 20-year-old twins from Brisbane who comprise the Veronicas, also were named in the suit that was announced Monday by Archie Comics.
Warner Music Group does not comment on pending litigation, a spokesman said Wednesday.
Betty Cooper, basically Veronica with blonde hair, a heart and a major thing for Archie Andrews, who doesn't notice because he has a major thing for Veronica, is staying out of the mess altogether.
The lawsuit, alleging trademark infringement, comes as music giant Warners is about to foist the Veronicas on the U.S. market. Their debut single, "4Ever," cowritten with pop maestro Max Martin ("I Want It That Way," "...Baby One More Time"), is scheduled to be released Tuesday; their full-length album, The Secret Life of the Veronicas, is on the schedule for October.
In an interview last week with the Australian Associated Press, the Origliassos described their sound as "a cross between Avril Lavigne and the No Doubt kind of vibe," and credited Veronica Lodge, said to be their favorite comic-book character, with being the inspiration for the band's moniker.
"We wanted a girl's name," Jess Origliasso told the wire service. "And we didn't want to be the Lisas or the Jesses because the other one would kind of get jealous, so we went with Veronica."
Archie Comics would rather they hadn't, not at this "critical stage of roll out," the company said. According to Bloomberg News, the lawsuit cites plans to relaunch the Archies, and produce a big-screen Betty and Veronica vehicle.
In 1969, the Archies became the first cartoons, preceding Milli Vanilli, to top the U.S. charts with the quintessential bubblegum confection "Sugar, Sugar." Like Susan Dey in The Partridge Family after her, Veronica served the group by fake-playing the keyboards sort of in time with the music. In 2002, boy-band impresario Lou Pearlman announced plans to reinvent the Archies with human beings.
The Betty and Veronica movie, meanwhile, is to be called Betty & Veronica. Miramax talked up plans for the "major" live-action feature in 2003, although the project's current status was unclear, as was Pearlman's people-populated Archies concept.
In any case, Archie Comics is convinced that a band traipsing the globe under the name of the Veronicas will "damag[e] the Veronica character's image to her legion of fans."
Perhaps if the Veronicas had played nice... In its press release, the publishing company acknowledged that its lawsuit came after talks to work out a licensing deal with the sister act fell through.
Interestingly, the Veronicas and/or their record label higher-ups seem to recognize the importance of a unique name. Earlier this year, a Sacramento, California-based indie power-pop band long known as the Veronicas changed its name to Beyond Veronica after hearing from attorneys for the corporate-backed Veronicas.
In real life, as in the comics, Veronica apparently gets what she wants. Which should make the looming legal battle between Veronica and the Veronicas a doozy.
Funny how Betty never finds herself in these scrapes.
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