The Hobbit Pub in Southampton is being sued.
Stephen Fry Defends Hobbit Pub
The British actor takes a stand against corporate trademark bullying.
Web2Carz Senior Writer
Published: March 14th, 2012
Stephen Fry, who is filming The Hobbit in Australia, has spoken out against the lawsuit.T
o avowed Anglophiles, Stephen Fry is already something of a hero, if only for his distinguished career as a comedian and an actor (check out the shows A Bit Fry and Lurie, Jeeves and Wooster, Blackadder, Absolute Power to see why), but to Americans he’ll soon be more recognizable thanks to his role in Peter Jackson’s adaptation of The Hobbit, which he is currently filming.
But Fry’s role in The Hobbit is helping more than his film career. He’s currently speaking up for the owners of a small pub in England who are being sued by the Hollywood corporation that owns the rights to all JRR Tolkien characters.
The Saul Zaentz Company (SZC) is suing the 20-year-old Southampton pub called The Hobbit, over not only its name, but the likenesses of various characters from the Tolkien book that adorn the pub’s sign, and the names of various items on The Hobbit’s menu, that also reference the characters.
Fry has helped garner significant press for the pub’s plight through his support of the facebook group established to save the pub, and through his Twitter feed.
“Honestly,” Fry tweeted. “Sometimes I’m ashamed of the business I’m in. What pointless, self-defeating bullying.”
Attorneys representing SCZ have made no comment.
The Save The Hobbit facebook page currently has 16,500 followers.
