(EXCLUSIVE) Shonda Rhimes Vindicated! ‘Scandal’ Creator Defeats Author Accusing Her of Stealing

theJasmineBRAND.com exclusively reports, “Scandal” creator Shonda Rhimes scored a legal victory against a author who accused her of stealing her work, with a federal court judge throwing out the entire lawsuit.

As previously reported, earlier this year Rhimes was sued by a writer named Debra Feldman, who accused her of getting a hold of her manuscript “The Red Tattoo” and using it as the basis for her now-cancelled ABC medical drama “Off the Map” — which focused on U.S. doctors working in a remote South America village.

Shonda Rhimes, Oprah Winfrey

According to the lawsuit, Feldman claimed that Rhimes team knew nothing about medical treatment in a third-world island, so it was blatantly obvious she stole her story.

Rhimes fired back at the allegations. She explained that Feldman has already attempted to sue her over another show for the same claims and it was dismissed years ago.

She stated that Feldman’s,

sweeping allegations, consisting of raw speculation about fantastical conspiracies, do not satisfy the court’s pleading standards.

On December 17th, the federal court judge reportedly came back with his decision and sided with Rhimes by dismissing the legal battle. The order states that the judge watched all 13 episodes of “Off The Map” and notes that each episode he watched with “diminishing anticipation”.

He reportedly says that Feldman had failed to prove that the similarities between her work and Rhimes show. Further, no audience would find any reasonable similarities with the overall concept, pace, sequence, characters or plot between the works. The order notes that Feldman’s book features time travel and is not a jungle medical melodrama like Rhimes show. The judge awarded Feldman nothing from her complaint and dismissed the entire case. See the exclusive court docs.

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