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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5811
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/5811
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

> **I AM NOT A LAWYER.**

As long as it is clearly evident that the piece is fictional, my understanding is that you can basically employ celebrities however you like.

Major issues you generally want to avoid are:

- libel and defamation
- copyright violation
- use of likeness without permission

But a fictional account (clearly presented as such, and not using copyrighted works or actual pictures of the celebrity) has none of these problems. See, for example, [_The Social Network_](http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1285016/), a dramatized account of the founding of Facebook, which played [fast and loose with the facts](http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2010/09/30/the-facebook-and-zuckerberg-in-the-social-network-arent-real.html) and was produced [without consent or cooperation from its subject, Mark Zuckerberg](http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/andrew-clark-on-america/2010/sep/23/facebook-mark-zuckerberg).

The major thing to watch out for, then, is looking as though your blog is nonfictional. In blog format that'll be a bit hard, because you probably don't want a disclaimer in every post. Make sure you can get something very clear into your design, maybe even a regular line in your RSS feed, to avoid anything approaching misleading appearances - because _those_ could probably get you into trouble. But the act itself, publishing fiction involving real-life public figures - that should be perfectly OK.

Original score: 4