This could have gone in a few different threads. Summoning the Princess for on-the-record response!
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,204910,00.htmlYou, Me and Steely Dan
Is the new comedy “You, Me and Dupree” ripped from the lyrics of Steely Dan’s song, “Cousin Dupree”?
The guys who comprise the Dan — Walter Becker and Donald Fagen — apparently think so. They’ve posted a letter on their Web site to actor Luke Wilson, brother of “Dupree” star Owen Wilson, in which they lay out their claim and ask for an apology.
“Cousin Dupree” appeared on the group’s 2001 Grammy award-winning comeback album, “Two Against Nature.” The lyrics are about a young ne’er do well musician who returns home to find his even younger female cousin all grown up. The narrator lusts after her in a very unfamilial way. The song features a great line about “the dreary architecture of my soul.”
In “You, Me and Dupree” — written by novice Mike LeSieur and directed by Anthony and Joe Russo, a young man (played by Owen Wilson) — is fired from his job and loses his place to live because he attends the wedding of his best friend (Matt Dillon). The friend and his wife (Kate Hudson) take him in, and the two men bond a lot while the wife is left out in the cold. The friend’s character name is Randy Dupree, hence the Steely Dan connection.
The duo’s letter to Luke Wilson — titled “Hey Luke" — is typed on stationery from the Residential Suites at Longworth, the hotel where Becker and Fagen are staying this week on their summer concert tour.
After identifying themselves as the Grammy-winning creators of such hits as “RIkki Don’t Lose That Number” and “Reelin’ in the Years” (among others), the pair gets to the point.
“What we suspect may have happened is this,” Becker and Fagen write in the letter. “Some hack writer or producer or whatever they call themselves in Malibu or Los Feliz apparently heard our Grammy-winning song, ‘Cousin Dupree,’ on the radio and thought, hey man, this is a cool idea for a character in a movie or something.”
“OK, so the “cousin” idea was no doubt eliminated so as not to offend the fundamentalist ticket buyers in the flyovers. Nevertheless, they like, took our character, this real dog sleeping on the couch and all and put him the middle of some hokey “Down and Out in Beverly Hills” rip off story and then, when it came time to change the character’s name or whatever so people wouldn’t know what a rip the whole thing was, they didn’t even bother to think up a new [bleeping] name for the guy!"
They warn Luke Wilson that their brother Owen “has gotten himself mixed up with some pretty bad Hollywood schlockmeisters and that he may be doing, like, permanent damage to his good creds and whatever reputation for coolness he may still have — let’s face it, ‘Bottle Rocket’ was a ways back already.”
My personal favorite part of the letter reads as follows: “And Luke, think of yourself, man. Do you really want to go down as the brother of the Zal Yanovsky of the 21st century?”
(Hilarious since almost no one but Dennis Miller is likely to get the reference to the former member of the Lovin' Spoonful who died in 2002 at age 58. But I’m not even sure this is who they mean. The guys may be thinking of creepy “Red Shoes Diary” actor-director Zalman King, whom Owen actually resembles.)
The only redress Becker and Fagen suggest for now is that Owen Wilson come to one of their California concerts and apologize to the group’s fans.
In exchange, they offer to load him up with Steely Dan merchandise. There’s also a veiled threat of sending a large Russian who resembles a Navy SEAL and knows nothing of the Wilsons’ work to make things right if Owen declines Steely Dan’s invitation.
Stay tuned...
