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Geena Davis is suing the owners of a Minnesota-based advocacy group for allegedly taking her idea for a charitable foundation and promoting it as their own.
The actress filed her claim this week in Los Angeles Superior Court against Joseph Kelly and Nancy Gruver, owners of the Dads & Daughters nonprofit organisation, seeking unspecified compensatory and punitive damages.
Davis, 51, said in court papers she came up with the idea for the See Jane foundation, which encourages balanced gender representation in entertainment for children, in 2004.
She alleges Kelly and Gruver agreed to be the project's fiscal sponsors and that she raised nearly US$750,000 ($1.06 million) in donations for the foundation.
Kelly and Gruver told others they owned the project, and have used Davis' name and likeness without her permission to promote Dads & Daughters, Davis said in the suit.
Davis, who won an Academy Award in 1988, recently starred in the ABC series Commander in Chief.
Duluth-based Dads & Daughters advocates for girls and creates programmes and publications that support fathers' involvement in their daughters' lives.
- NZPA
