When married real estate agents Scott and Melinda Tamkin read about an episode of the hit crime drama "CSI: Crime Scene Investigation" that featured dirty-dealing, S&M-loving real estate agents named Scott and Melinda Tamkin, they didn't need to consult a forensic expert for an explanation.
A house sale involving the Tamkins and a "CSI" producer had fallen apart four years before, and the producer was listed, in the same online description, as the co-writer of the episode.
On Friday the Tamkins filed a $6-million defamation and invasion of privacy suit against the producer, Sarah Goldfinger, saying she humiliated them and cost them potential business "by creating from whole cloth characters engaged in a reckless lifestyle of sexual bondage, pornography, drunkenness, marital discord, depression, financial straits and possibly even murder."
Also named as defendants in Los Angeles County Superior Court are CBS, which broadcasts the series; Jerry Bruckheimer Television, the company that produced the episode; and Goldman, Sachs Capital Partners, which is identified in court papers as a partner in the production. A Goldman spokesman declined to comment. The other defendants did not respond to messages seeking comment.
In "Deep Fried and Minty Fresh," an episode that aired in February, the characters in question -- mysteriously deceased Melinda and her husband and suspected killer Scott -- are referred to as the Tuckers. But the suit contends that the surname was Tamkin in the original script and that Tamkin was used in casting calls and in synopses of the episode later posted widely online on "spoiler" sites and other pages.
A lawyer for the Tamkins, who live in Westwood with their three children, wrote in the suit that the "eleventh hour" name change was "for all intents and purposes an admission that [Goldfinger] had stepped over the line." The suit alleges that even after the switch, Goldfinger, who was also a producer on the episode, helped choose actors who resembled the Tamkins for the roles.
The couple contacted CBS after Scott Tamkin did an Internet search for his name and discovered the "CSI" episode descriptions. The network tried to remove some of the postings, including pages where references to kinky sex ascribed to the fictional couple linked to pornography sites, said the Tamkins' lawyer, Anthony Glassman.
