People: Fox News anchor sues Hasbro over namesake hamster toy
An anchor for Fox News is suing Hasbro for more than $5 million over a toy hamster that shares her name – and possibly even her resemblance.
Harris Faulkner sued Hasbro this week over its plastic Harris Faulkner hamster, sold as part of the Pawtucket, Rhode Island-based company’s popular Littlest Pet Shop line. She says the toy wrongfully appropriates her name and persona, harms her professional credibility as a journalist and is an insult.
“Hasbro’s portrayal of Faulkner as a rodent is demeaning and insulting,” says the lawsuit, which was filed Monday in U.S. District Court in New Jersey.
Faulkner has been at Fox News for a decade. She hosts the daytime show “Outnumbered” and anchors a Sunday evening newscast.
Her lawsuit says that in addition to sharing her name, the toy bears a physical resemblance to Faulkner’s traditional professional appearance.
The Harris Faulkner toy was introduced in 2014, according to the lawsuit, and was sold in a package as the pet hamster of a terrier named Benson Detwyler. Other toys in the popular line include animals named Pancakes Watkins, Puffball Petrovsky and Pepper Clark.
France train hero joins ‘Dancing’ cast
ABC moved quickly to land one of the three men who foiled a terror attack on a Paris-bound train last month for the 21st season cast of “Dancing With the Stars.”
The network announced Wednesday that Alek Skarlatos, who overpowered a gun-toting man last month with his friends Spencer Stone and Anthony Sadler, will be in the dancing competition that starts again on Sept. 14.
Chef Paula Deen, actor Gary Busey and Bindi Irwin, actress-daughter of the late wildlife TV star Steve Irwin, are among the other cast members.
Actor tries to help neighbor during fire
Actor Dylan Baker tried to rescue an elderly neighbor before escaping a high-rise apartment fire in Manhattan.
It happened on the 33rd floor of a building just before 4:30 p.m. Tuesday.
Baker, who has a recurring TV role in “The Good Wife,” told NBC New York he had just returned home when an alarm went off and he saw smoke coming from his neighbor’s apartment.
He said he pounded on her door and called her name before opening the door and seeing flames everywhere. He said he shut the door and called 911 before hurrying his family out of the building.
Firefighters quickly put out the fire. The woman was hospitalized in critical condition.
Baker also has appeared in “Spider-Man 2” and “Spider-Man 3.”
The birthday bunch
“Beetle Bailey” creator Mort Walker is 92. Singer-guitarist Al Jardine (The Beach Boys) is 73. Charlie Sheen is 50. Musician Redfoo (LMFAO) is 40. Actress Ashley Jones (“True Blood”) is 39. Actor Nick Wechsler (“Roswell”) is 37. Actor Garrett Hedlund (“Tron”) is 31.