US judge dismisses Ana de Armas ‘false advertising’ case

Time to lay down their de Armas.

A pair of aggrieved Ana de Armas fans were shown the courtroom door Monday after an annoyed US district judge dismissed their $5 million lawsuit against Universal Pictures.

Conor Woulfe and Paul Michael Rosza were asking for damages incurred after spending $4 to rent the 2019 romantic comedy “Yesterday” on Amazon Prime, on the basis of having seen the “Knives Out” actress in an official trailer. De Armas was completely cut from the final print.

Presiding judge Stephen Wilson made his decision to ultimately side with Universal after rejecting the charges of “misrepresentation” laid against the musical rom-com. He cited his dismissal as a “self-inflicted injury” caused by the plaintiffs’ less-than-clever legal maneuverings, according to Deadline.

The not-so-dynamic duo appeared to have gotten the judge hot under the collar with multiple amendments to their original 2022 lawsuit, which had been tossed out before.

According to Wilson, Woulfe tripped things up once and for all after it was revealed the Maryland man had rented the offending film a second time on Google Play, apparently in order to make a similar claim against Google. De Armas was reportedly listed as part of the “Yesterday” cast on the site at the time.

“In each prior dismissal, the Court has clearly delineated the pitfalls of the complaint and allowed successive amendments,” Wilson wrote in a fiery nine-page order. “However, it now appears to the Court that further amendments would be a futility. Accordingly, dismissal is without leave to amend. This is the third time that Plaintiff has amended their complaint, and it shall be the last.”

Wilson added that Woulfe has “offered no explanation as to why he believed that the version of ‘Yesterday’ they accessed on Google Play would be a different version of the movie they accessed on Amazon.”

According to the lawsuit, the film was “unable to rely on fame of the actors playing Jack Malik or Ellie (Lily James) to maximize ticket and movie sales and rentals … defendant consequently used Ms. De Armas’ fame, radiance and brilliance to promote the film by including her scenes in the movie trailers advertising ‘Yesterday.’” 

“Yesterday” screenwriter Richard Curtis explained to Cinemablend that de Armas, 35, was originally cast as the love interest to the film’s main character Jack Malik (played by Himesh Patel) but was later cut when test audiences reacted poorly to the love triangle plot.

Despite being cut from the final product, Armas does still appear in the film’s trailer.

The Post reached out to Universal and Armas for comment.

Universal argued in court that movie trailers were protected under the First Amendment as “artistic, expressive work.”

The studio also argued that should the lawsuit proceed, it would open the door to “burdensome litigation anytime a viewer claimed to be disappointed with whether and how much of any person or scene they saw in the trailer was in the final film; with whether the movie fit into the kind of genre they claimed to expect; or any of an unlimited number of disappointments a viewer could claim.”

And while Judge Wilson concluded that the false advertising claims could only stand when a “significant portion” of “reasonable consumers” could be deceived, he did express some sympathy for toward the punted plaintiffs’ POV.

“Universal is correct that trailers involve some creativity and editorial discretion, but this creativity does not outweigh the commercial nature of a trailer,” Wilson wrote, according to Variety. “At its core, a trailer is an advertisement designed to sell a movie by providing consumers with a preview of the movie.”