Canadian journalist says "Knocked Up" a knock-off

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By Naomi Kim

TORONTO (Reuters) - A Canadian journalist is suing the director and the studio of the new hit comedy "Knocked Up," arguing that she’s the rightful parent of the tale behind the movie.

In a suit filed against writer-director Judd Apatow, and against Universal Studios, Calgary-based Rebecca Eckler says there are too many similarities between the movie and her book about her accidental pregnancy to be a coincidence.

"I don’t doubt, purely based on the screenplay, that he (Apatow) had a copy in his office somehow of the book," Eckler told Reuters.

"A lot of people, I’m sure, will say, ’Well, getting drunk and knocked up, it could happen to everybody.’ Well, the fact is, it doesn’t happen to everybody, and no one had written about it before I did. And he (Apatow) didn’t sell the screenplay until after I did."

Eckler’s book, "Knocked Up: Confessions of a Hip Mother-to-Be," was published in the United States in 2005, and Eckler said she wants credit and compensation.

The story of an up-and-coming reporter who gets drunk and pregnant is the premise behind both the film and Eckler’s book. She said other similarities include the fact that both fathers are Jewish-Canadians, and both mothers took a huge number of pregnancy tests to confirm a baby was on the .....continued below

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Apatow contends the two stories are very different.

"The book is about a woman who gets pregnant by the fiance that she loves on the night of her engagement party," he said in a statement. "The film is about a one-night stand between a pot smoking slacker and an ambitious young woman that leads to a pregnancy and their attempts to get to know each other.

"Anyone who reads the book and sees the movie will instantly know that they are two very different stories about a common experience."

Eckler said she filed her copyright infringement lawsuit in January. The trial is set to begin in March 2008.

The movie opened in North America on June 1 and stars Seth Rogen as pot-smoking daddy Ben Stone and Katherine Heigl as the mom-to-be, Alison Scott. It earned an impressive $30.7 million in its first weekend.

"I can see why the movie’s successful. It’s funny," said Eckler.