Reality TV “star” Johnny Devenanzio is pissed off at HBO and “Entourage” for allegedly stealing his identity with the new cartoon that Johnny Drama (Kevin Dillon) is starring in, “Johnny Bananas”. Notice my use of quotation marks when I refer to Johnny D as a star. It is a term that, at least in my opinion, should be very loosely associated with him. During his stint on MTV’s “Real World” and other MTV shows, he was referred to by his nickname, you guessed it, Johnny Bananas and now claims he owns the rights to the name and has even had his attorney send off a cease and desist letter to HBO.
That’s all fine and dandy. What Devenanzio needs to realize is that this is David and Goliath. There is no way he actually gets HBO to change the name of the cartoon and will more than likely just get a settlement at best. Perhaps that is all he wants. My guess is that he just wants people to talk about him for another 15 minutes. Either way, it is a slime ball move by a D-List actor…which is another term that should be loosely associated with Devenanzio.
That was basically it for that story until Devenanzio stepped out for dinner at Beso in L.A. last night, clearly trying to get more traction for his story. The problem is he made a comment that bothered the F out of me. He was saying that he had spent the last 5 years building this character into a household name (please) and that his identity had been stolen. He also added that “It’s not like I spilled hot coffee on my vagina and I’m trying to make a buck off of it.”
While I recognize the ignorance and stupidity that is almost every person that graces the screens of MTV (save for Amber Lancaster), I am willing to bet that Johnny Devenanzio has no idea what he was talking about with the hot coffee vagina comment. I doubt he knows who Stella Liebeck was and it is clear he has no idea what he is talking about when he referenced her case, making it seem as if she was trying to make a buck off of burning herself with hot McDonalds coffee.
Stella Liebeck, at the time of the incident, was a 79 year old grandmother who had recently purchased a cup of coffee through the drive thru at McDonalds. She was the passenger and they pulled into a parking spot so she could add creamer to her coffee. She placed the coffee between her legs and removed the lid. It was then the coffee slipped backwards and spilled on her legs, inner thighs and genital area. That is the general story that everyone knows but the details of the rest of the story is where people are left in the dark.
What most people, including Mr. Devenanzio, fail to realize is that Stella sustained third degree burns over 16% of her body and had to be hospitalized for over a week. She was permanently scarred and also had to receive numerous skin grafts. Her doctor testified that her burns were one of the worst cases of scalding he had ever seen. She was disabled for nearly two years.
Sounds like someone just trying to make a buck off spilled coffee, huh?
The problem clearly lied with McDonalds because their coffee was served between 180-190 degrees Fahrenheit, which is hot enough to cause third degree burns to human skin in less than 8 seconds. It was soon found that there were over 700 claims made against McDonalds for injuries similar to Stella’s and that McDonalds did not change its policy and continued to serve the extremely hot beverage.
Mrs. Liebeck tried to settle with McDonalds for $20,000 to cover her medical costs but the McDonalds countered with their own settlement. They offered her $800. The case ended up going to trial where Mrs. Liebeck was ultimately awarded $640,000 in compensatory and punitive damages.
I know that was a lot to read but I hope you did. It is clear that his reality moron is trying his best to stay in the lime light or at least stay as close as he can to the shadow. I hope that HBO presses their thumb on this insect and removes him from news feeds forever.
Oh ya, did Johnny Devenanzio just say he has a vagina?
Perhaps Johnny boy needs to tune into the very network that he wants to sue…
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