George Santos sues Jimmy Kimmel, claiming he tricked him into making 'ridiculing' videos on Cameo

• George Santos said Jimmy Kimmel "falsely represented" himself when requesting Cameo videos.
• The former rep has brought a lawsuit against the TV show host, seeking at least $750,000 in damages.
• Kimmel submitted several video requests to Santos under fake names, which Santos duly obliged.

Former Rep. George Santos has alleged that Jimmy Kimmel deceived him into making videos on Cameo that were used to ridicule him on the late-night television host's eponymous talk show.

In a civil lawsuit filed on Saturday in the US District Court for the Southern District of New York against Kimmel, the disgraced Republican said Kimmel misrepresented himself to induce Santos into creating personalized videos "capitalizing on and ridiculing" his "gregarious personality," according to AP News.

Santos seeks at least $750,000 in damages for fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and copyright infringement. Walt Disney Co. and ABC were also named as defendants in the suit.

Per the complaint, Kimmel submitted at least 14 video requests to Santos using fake identities. Five of these appeared on episodes of "Jimmy Kimmel! Live" on a segment, "Will Santos Say It?" and on the show's various social media platforms.

According to Rolling Stone, the complaint states that Kimmel "chose the personal use licenses for all the Cameo Videos with the intention to violate such licenses by broadcasting and commercially exploiting the Cameo Videos on national television."

In one request, Kimmel asked Santos to congratulate someone on winning a beef-eating contest. Santos duly obliged, and his response, in which he called the feat of consuming six pounds of loose ground beef in under 30 minutes an "amazing and impressive," appeared on the December 7 episode of "Jimmy Kimmel! Live."

Santos was expelled from the House of Representatives in early December 2023 following multiple allegations of fraud and a damning ethics report.

Representatives for Santos, Kimmel, Walt Disney Co., and ABC did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider, sent outside regular business hours.

Within a week of being ousted from Congress, Santos began selling videos of himself on Cameo, a website where people can have celebrities record a message to fans for a price.

Santos sold videos on the platform for $75 before quickly upping the price to $150 and then again to $500. As of February 2024, he is still operating on the platform, and his videos are priced at $277.

As the suit noted, Kimmel joked about being sued by Santos during a December 11 episode of his ABC show.

"Could you imagine if I get sued by George Santos for a fraud," Kimmel said at the time. "I mean, how good would that be? It would be like a dream come true. So since I started buying his videos his rates went way up to $500 a piece. He should be thanking me for buying these videos."

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By: [email protected] (Eve Crosbie)
Title: George Santos sues Jimmy Kimmel, claiming he tricked him into making 'ridiculing' videos on Cameo
Sourced From: www.businessinsider.com/george-santos-lawsuit-against-jimmy-kimmel-cameo-app-videos-2024-2
Published Date: Sun, 18 Feb 2024 12:39:37 +0000

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