Canadian Gold Medalist Sues TV Show Over Character’s Image

Canadian Olympic snowboarding Gold Medalist Ross Rebagliati has filed a claim against CTV, Boardwatch Productions and Kelly Senecal, the creators and producers of the TV series “Whistler,” alleging they “misappropriated his personality, breached his privacy and continue to defame him each time the show airs,” according to Matthew Ramsey of the Vancouver PROVINCE. Rebagliati wants the show “shelved and is seeking unspecified but ‘significant’ damages.” The character of Beck McKaye died in the first episode of the show, but he “is revealed in flashbacks (and as a ghost) to be a philandering blackmailing drunk, and responsible for a hit-and-run accident that confined another character to a wheelchair.” Rebagliati: “I am the only blond-haired, blue-eyed Canadian snowboarding Olympic gold medal winner who lives in Whistler in the world, so it is impossible to believe that CTV’s Whistler television show, in a complete coincidence, created a key character named Beck McKaye, who is a blond-haired, blue-eyed Canadian snowboard Olympic gold medal winner who lives in Whistler.” The show’s exec producers –- Senecal, Boardwatch’s Sam Feldman and Janet York and Blueprint Entertainment’s Noreen Halpern and John Morayniss -– wrote in a statement the physical resemblance between McKaye and Rebagliati is “purely coincidental. ... The character of Beck McKaye in Whistler was not in any way modelled after Mr. Rebagliati. Simply put, there is no connection.” Ramsey notes CTV plans to fight the case in court. Rebagliati is a Roots endorser (Vancouver PROVINCE, 8/3). Rebagliati “claims the show could cast doubt on his own reputation and affect his ability to secure future sponsorships” (Toronto GLOBE & MAIL, 8/3).