Rock Star: Super-NO-Va

"Popular" Entertainment Program Rock Star: Supernova the "hard rock" alternative to American Idol in competition for the dollars of Murrka™'s proles, has hit a bit of a snag. Liberal Activist Judges have once again gotten in the way of a good brainwash:

Judge Sides With Original Supernova In 'Rock Star' Suit
Ruling requires Tommy Lee's band to change name following show's finale.

According to a Tuesday (September 12) ruling by San Diego Judge John Houston, the producers of CBS' "Rock Star" are going to have to come up with an alternate name for Supernova, the band made up of Mötle Crüe's Tommy Lee, Voivod's Jason Newsted and former Guns N' Roses guitarist Gilby Clarke.

Last month, the original Supernova — an Orange County, California, punk trio — filed for a preliminary injunction in San Diego's U.S. District Court against CBS Broadcasting, Mark Burnett Productions and Lee, Newsted and Clarke, who are starring in the second season of the reality show. The injunction sought to halt the television-contrived act from performing or recording under the name "Supernova" if the band fails to change or add any words to the moniker.

The injunction keeps the producers of "Rock Star: Supernova" — which concludes Wednesday night — from "performing rock and roll music, or recording, or selling rock and roll music recordings under the same [name], pending a trial of this action on its merits, or until otherwise ordered by the court."

The original Supernova — which formed in 1989 and are perhaps best known for their tune "Chewbacca," from the soundtrack to Kevin Smith's 1994 film "Clerks" — first filed suit against the show's producers in late June. When the group discovered the show's producers' intentions to use Supernova as the name for their supergroup, the band contacted them; negotiations between both sides followed on the heels of the suit's filing. Those talks hit a wall last month, forcing the band to take additional legal action to protect its rights. The filing alleged trademark infringement and sought a jury trial, as well as the eradication of all "labels, signs, prints, packages, wrappers, containers, advertisements, electronic media and other materials bearing the Supernova mark."

Frankly, I can't believe they thought they would win a case like that... the precedent on those types of cases was set down somewhere around the time that caveman Ugg tried to sell cheap imported "Klubb" knock-offs of caveman Brak's trademarked invention "the Club™." If there's one thing in Murrka™ which gets legally protected, it's the copyrights of incorporated entitiies.

Perhaps they could change the name to "Rock Star: Stupidnova"?

Then again, why didn't the Ministry of Culture just title it the more appropriately named "Rock Star: Stupornova" from the get-go? We haven't seen so many stale versions of songs popular in 1994 since... uhm... 1994? And am I the only person to notice how lame the phrase "Voivod's Jason Newsted" looks in print compared to, oh, I dunno, "Jason Newsted of the band Metallica"?