The Wrath Of Zod ... And The End Of TATTGOC

Monday started out just like any other day at TATTGOC Towers. There was the hushed contemplation of the most recent Ultimate Fighting Championship bouts, intermittently soundtracked by the reassuring "zzssst" that heralds the opening of a fresh can of cider. There was also the usual trickle of curry-related emails (including a few confirming that some TATTGOC readers had already sent in their nominations for the Irn-Bru Scottish Curry Awards 2010 - closing date is April 19, mind, and those Curry Lovers Of The Year aren't going to nominate themselves). Then, at around 4pm our time, we received an email from a Los Angeles-based law firm, the subject line of which was enough to drive a shard of ice into our hearts: "URGENT: CEASE AND DESIST NOTICE". The short version? It was a letter sent on behalf of veteran actor Terence Stamp. The coldly charismatic star of such films as The Limey and Wall Street was upset about something. And this is what he wanted to say ...

The longer version goes something like this: attached to the email was a sternly-worded letter (right) from corporate lawyer Theodore Nugent, drawing our attention to Stampy And The Stamps, a philately company owned by Terence Stamp. He apparently founded it in 1988 (the same year he was starring in Alien Nation and Young Guns). It seemed Terry and his lawyers think that Trampy and the Tramp is an attempt to piggyback his success with Stampy And The Stamps – and if we don't take down the site and send him a letter of apology within 14 days, there will be no measure to how fast and hard he will bring the fight to our doorstep. And considering he's the man who played General frickin' Zod, we've spent the past few days in a flopsweat wondering what to do. TATTGOC's legal counsel Rumpole Of The Balti suggests that on paper we could mount a pretty robust defence against Stamp and his litigious pitbulls but remember – this is the man who played General frickin' Zod. And no judge in the land is going to go against Zod.

So it is with a heavy heart that we must announce that we have decided to conform to Stamp's wishes. We will demount the site, as instructed, at 12.01pm today. All archives will be scuttled, all pictures despoiled, all video files nullified. It will be as if Trampy and The Tramp never existed.

So long, and thanks for all the fish pakora ...

7 comments:

Tikka Mabaws said...

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo... *deep breath* ...oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!
Is there no one on this planet to even challeng him?

Trampy said...

Yeah, where is Supernaan when you need him? (Oh, that's right, he got fired from the Daily Planet during the last round of redundancies and rapidly hit the bottle.)

Currie Bradshaw said...

Absolutely devastated by this news, guys. TTGOC cannot be allowed to die. I see there's now a #savetrampy twitter campaign to thwart this intergalactic injustice. As we all know, Twitter is kryptonite to ageing goatee-sporting thespians.

Anonymous said...

I'm no expert on intellectual property but trademark law is about preventing confusion between brands or the exploitation of goodwill associated with a brand

The only resemblance between our brotherhood and Mr Stamp's enterprise is the sound of the names; thier construction, purpose and audience are entirely distinct.

This is an attempt to claim ownership of the English language and an assualt on free speech.

I think we should take him, his lawyers and his raggedy-ass beard down to Chinatown.

Pablo Dosagarno said...

I'm no expert but seems like Trampy's having a bit of April Fools japery at our expense

Dosa Thashitz said...

nothing but philately to deceive

Anonymous said...

April fool?
and if it does go to court, i reckon rumpole can do just as good a Zod as Stampy.
let battle commence!

Karahi......CHOP!