Scarlett Johansson Wins Court Case Against Novelist, But Only Gets a Fraction of the Money

Scarlett Johansson was awarded a fraction of the legal damages she sought in a French court. Scarlett Johansson, the hottest woman in the world according to many men's magazines, brought a case against an author who wrote a character who was a promiscuous actress who has a series of love affairs with other celebrities.

The French court awarded Scarlett Johansson $3,400 in damages from the lawsuit against French author Gregoire Delacourt. In Delacourt's 2013 novel "The First Thing We Look At," Scarlett Johansson goes into the garage of a mechanic who doesn't have much luck with women. We soon find out that Johansson is actually a look-alike model. The real-life Johansson claimed that Delacourt was making false claims about her private life.

Johansson sued for "fraudulent use of her personal rights." Scarlett Johannson sued Grégoire Delacourt and his publisher JC Lattes. The author says it is a tribute to Scarlett Johansson and swears that the comparison is meant as a compliment.

The actress sued for $69,302 in court in Paris, France. Johansson won the lawsuit but was awarded just $3,397.Scarlett also hoped to stop the book from being translated or adapted into a movie, but the Paris courts threw out those options.

Emmanuelle Allibert, a representative from the book's publisher J-C Lattès told The Guardian that they and Delacourt were happy with the outcome. "All her other demands, including damages of €50,000, were rejected, notably that there should be a ban on the book being translated or made into a film. We just have to cut out the bit about the affairs, which is just four lines," Allibert said.

When the lawsuit was announced, Delacourt told the Guardian newspaper "I thought she'd get in contact to ask me to go for a coffee with her. I didn't write a novel about a celebrity.... I wrote a real love story and a homage to feminine beauty, especially interior beauty."

Delacourt is quoted as saying: "I was hoping she might send me flowers" and told the newspaper Le Figaro "I am also very sad. I was hoping that she might send me flowers because this book is, in a way, a declaration of love. She is an archetypal beauty of our times, very human with a touching fragility. She is a wonderful, iconic actress. I also describe someone being hurt when their airbag fails to inflate," he said. "Am I going to be sued by airbag manufacturers?"