Skip to content
Link copied to clipboard

Bazinga! 'Big Bang' sued over 'Soft Kitty' song

Also in Tattle: “Glee” jock arrested for kiddie porn, sex ed with Rocco Siffredi and more.

WE'VE COVERED some bizarre lawsuits over the years in Tattle, but this is a gem:

According to Entertainment Weekly, Ellen Newlin Chase and Margaret Chase Perry. the daughters and heirs of New Hampshire teacher Edith Newlin, have filed a "copyright infringement action" against the producers of "The Big Bang Theory," CBS and various media partners.

At issue? "Soft Kitty," Sheldon's beloved childhood song.

According to legal documents, "The lyrics - beginning with the words 'Soft kitty, warm kitty'" were created as a poem by Newlin in the 1930s and published by Willis Music Company in 1937 as part of the book Songs for the Nursery School.

Kevin Cranley, president of Willis Music, who says he worked out a rights deal for the song with producers, posted a blog entry last May confirming "Soft Kitty's" inclusion in the book, but credited its creation to writer Laura Pendleton MacCartney.

Newlin's daughters are seeking unspecified "remedies for willful copyright infringement." The suit says "Big Bang" has never been authorized to use the song.

No 'Glee' here

TMZ.com reports that Mark Salling, who played jock Noah "Puck" Puckerman on "Glee," has been arrested for allegedly possessing child pornography.

TMZ says the LAPD Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force obtained a warrant and served it yesterday morning.

The news was first reported by the TV show "Crime Watch Daily."

Police reportedly searched Salling's home computer and found hundreds of images of children under the age of 15.

Police were reportedly tipped to the kiddie porn stash by one of Salling's ex-girlfriends.

Siffredi seeks sex ed

Longtime male porn star Rocco "Italian Stallion" Siffredi is on a campaign to get young Italian men to learn about sex at school - and not through pornography.

Thedailybeast.com, described Siffredi, one of the early adapters to gonzo porn, as being perhaps best known for having sex with a woman while plunging her head into a flushing toilet.

Those Italians. So romantic.

Now, the 51-year-old Siffredi (a/k/a Rocco Antonio Tano) is behind a Change.org petition calling for requisite sex education in his native Italy.

Siffredi has warned Italy's Minister of Education that young men's knowledge of sex is largely informed by head-in-toilet sex scenes instead of "dialogue, listening, openness" at school.

"Pornography should be entertainment, but for lack of alternatives has become a learning tool, especially among young people," says the petition, which launched Dec. 21 on Global Orgasm Day - another holiday Tattle missed out on celebrating.

But talk about a holiday you should get off.

Siffredi argues that 30 years in porn qualifies him for this new position. He seeks to explain to adolescent boys that porn sex and real-life sex are not the same.

For example, the Daily Beast reports, not all women react with unrestrained enthusiasm when their lover spits on them, pulls their hair, or . . . you know.

TATTBITS

* Attorneys for Renita Hill, of western Pennsylvania, who contends Bill Cosby repeatedly drugged and had sex with her in the 1980s, have filed a response to Cosby's attempt to have a federal judge dismiss her defamation lawsuit against him.

Cosby's attorneys last week asked a Pittsburgh judge to dismiss Hill's October suit.

Hill sued, claiming Cosby made her out to be a "liar" and "extortionist" when the comedian, his wife and his attorney issued blanket denials to claims that Cosby drugged and sexually molested several women shortly after Hill went public with her allegations in November 2014.

Cosby's attorneys claimed the denials constitute opinions that are protected by the First Amendment. But Hill's attorneys said yesterday that those opinion were based on "undisclosed facts" - namely, the implication that Hill is lying.

* Not a fan of New Year's eve? Jennifer Lawrence isn't either.

People.com reports that during a "Joy"-promoting taped appearance on England's "The Graham Norton Show," to air Dec. 31, Lawrence said, "I really hate it. I've never had a good one - everyone's chasing a good time and it's always a disappointment. I plan on doing nothing and then if something lands in my lap . . . but I always end up drunk and disappointed."

"Drunk and Disappointed should be the title of my memoir!" she added.

Not only is Jennifer a drinker, she's a puker.

"When I get stressed and exhausted I just vomit," she said. "I was driving with my publicist the other day and had to roll down the window and I puked all down the side of the car. It was in front of all the paparazzi - I painted New York!"

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

Email: gensleh@phillynews.com

Phone: 215-854-5678

On Twitter: @DNTattle