Using congress person's likeness in movie

[Los-Angeles]

What is the name of your state? California, world wide
I am working on a mockumentary (comedy) that pokes fun at a political party. The story is fictional -- an imaginary "what if" the other opposing party were to suddenly disappear, so it's not like a Michael Moore documentary.
I wanted to have a real congress person's Twitter page (calling it Twerker) appear, with them making a post. I would use their public domain photo (all people in office have a public domain photo).
I know that you can't do this with every day people. My question is can these public figure politicians sue over use of their likeness for commercial use?
If so then I guess I'll just use a knock-off name, combining the first and last names of two different politicians so that the audience "gets" which party I'm mocking.

 

[quincy]

What is the name of your state? California, world wide
I am working on a mockumentary (comedy) that pokes fun at a political party. The story is fictional -- an imaginary "what if" the other opposing party were to suddenly disappear, so it's not like a Michael Moore documentary.
I wanted to have a real congress person's Twitter page (calling it Twerker) appear, with them making a post. I would use their public domain photo (all people in office have a public domain photo).
I know that you can't do this with every day people. My question is can these public figure politicians sue over use of their likeness for commercial use?

Yes. Public persons can sue, just like any other person can, over the unauthorized use of their name or image, or over invasion of their privacy, or over defamation, or over infringement of their intellectual property rights.

In addition to these rights held by everyone, public people also have valuable publicity rights. Publicity rights are the rights that allows a person to commercially exploit their own name and image. Famous people, for example, often make the bulk of their wealth through endorsements of products or services.

Calling something a "mockumentary" does not protect the resulting work from lawsuits. Ask Sacha Baron Cohen.

If you want to make a film, I recommend you sit down with a legal professional in your area to go over the areas of your film most likely to spawn a lawsuit, and revise/edit your film accordingly. In addition, you should have insurance enough to cover the costs of lawsuits that might arise over your film's content, despite your best efforts to avoid one.

Good luck.

 

[quincy]

Los-Angeles, if you have additional questions about your mockumentary, you can add them to this thread. Thanks.