User blog:ARTaylor/Hank Azaria Sues for Voice Character

Hank Azaria is suing friend and collaborator Craig Bierko over the rights to his Jim Brockmire character. Azaria wants to make a film based on the Brockmire voice but Bierko is claiming some credit for the character. Azaria says he came up with the old-timey baseball announcer character back in 1983 in college. Bierko reportedly had his own baseball announcer voice. After a mutual acquaintance brought them together in 1990, the two began performing their voices for each other. In 2010, Azaria made a mockumentary about Brockmire for Funny or Die and wishes to expand the role into a film. According to the lawsuit, Bierko has "demanded that Azaria cease and desist from exploiting the Azaria voice and, by inference, the Jim Brockmire character. Bierko is erroneously stating that he (Bierko) created the Azaria voice and, by implication, the Jim Brockmire character."