10 Biggest (And Weirdest) Lawsuits In Star Trek History
2. Nimoy V Paramount
In 1972, Leonard Nimoy met Henry Fonda on the set of The Alpha Caper, after which they remained friends. Three years later, Nimoy and his wife Sandra Zopher joined Fonda and his wife Shirley Mae Adams for dinner after a performance of the play he was appearing in, Darrow. During this dinner, Fonda asked Nimoy what he thought of the Spock billboards all over town.
'What billboards?' Nimoy replied.
He had seen Spock's face on merchandise for quite some time, yet never given it much thought. However, the sexual nature of the Heineken ad, in which drinking the beer makes Spock's ears rise, he found to be in bad taste. He discovered that Heineken had not received permission to use his likeness, though he also found that Paramount had not been paying him for merchandising rights in several years.
He sued the company, going so far as to hold up any production on Star Trek: The Motion Picture until the case was resolved. With help from Jeffrey Katzenberg, a payment was delivered to Nimoy and the case was settled.