Dylan's lawyers move to halt 'Factory Girl' screenings in possible defamation case (SIX)

By Nancy Vialatte

Bob Dylan’s lawyers have fired off a missive to “Factory Girl” producers Bob Yari and Holly Wiersma and screenwriter Aaron Richard Golub demanding the film not being released or screened until they and Dylan can see it for themselves.

Page Six reports that Dylan is concerned that the film intimates that he was responsible for Edie Sedgwick’s suicide.

Sedgwick, played by Sienna Miller in the film, knew Dylan while living at the Chelsea Hotel. In the original screenplay, an alleged relationship between Sedgwick and Dylan and the eventual dumping of Sedgwick by Dylan, led to the Warhol ingenue’s suicide.

While the character was initially called Bob Dylan, his name has now been changed to Danny Quinn, a composite of Dylan, Jim Morrison and Mick Jagger, says Page Six. But Dylan’s lawyer says people who have seen the film say it is obviously Dylan.

The letter fired off to Yari and co. says: "You appear to be laboring under the misunderstanding that merely changing the name of a character or making him a purported fictional composite will immunize you from suit. That is not so. Even though Mr. Dylan's name is not used, the portrayal remains both defamatory and a violation of Mr. Dylan's right of publicity . . . Until we are given an opportunity to view the film, we hereby demand that all distribution and screenings . . . immediately be ceased."