Two fans sue Universal Pictures because Ana De Armas didn’t appear in Yesterday as promised

Today’s most frivolous lawsuit goes to the one filed by two super fans of Ana De Armas. The fans filed a consumer protection class lawsuit alleging that it was “deceptive, and misleading advertising” having the actress appear in the trailer for Universal’s 2019 film Yesterday, only to have the scene not appear in the final cut of the movie.

The two bold souls filing this lawsuit are Conor Woulfe and Peter Michael Rosza and, per “Deadline“, they contend that, based on the initial trailers for the film that they watched on Amazon.com, they each spent approximately $3.99 to watch the movie. Apparently, they weren’t super fans enough because they didn’t try to see the movie in 2019 when it was released but perhaps they were busy then. Here is an excerpt from the lawsuit:

“Among other deceptions, Defendant’s nationwide advertising and promotion of the movie Yesterday represents to prospective movie viewers that the world famous actress Ana De Armas has a substantial character role in the film. Defendant’s movie Yesterday, however, fails to include any appearance of Ana De Armas whatsoever. Accordingly, Defendant’s advertising and promotion of the movie Yesterday is false, misleading, and deceptive.”

De Armas’ scene was cut from the final film because, according to screenwriter Richard Curtis, she was to play an actress with whom the main character, Jack (Himesh Patel), feels some mutual attraction and, because Jack is already in a committed relationship with Ellie (Lily James), the audience wasn’t into his flirtation with De Armas’ character. Curtis said he was going to use “Ana De Armas as a complicating factor when he [Jack] arrived in L.A. for the first time. And I think the audience did not like the fact that his eyes even strayed. Because then some people would go, ‘Oh, he really doesn’t deserve her. He really doesn’t deserve Lily.’ You know, it’s one of those things where it’s some of our favorite scenes from the film, but we had to cut them for the sake of the whole.”

BTW, De Armas is only featured for ten seconds in the three-plus minute trailer but the lawsuit says even that is “misleading advertising.” They also weren’t happy that Universal attempted to use her star power to promote the movie because, as they put it, Himesh Patel and Lily James were each “a relatively unknown name to the casual movie watcher.”

The lawsuit is seeking damages and “all money obtained from Plaintiff and the other members of the Class collected as a result of Defendant’s unfair competition, and for an injunction prohibiting Defendant from continuing and further engaging in its unlawful, unfair and fraudulent conduct, requiring corrective advertising, and awarding all other relief this Court deems appropriate.”

Good luck with that lawsuit guys!