Michael The makers of "Grand Theft Auto," the sandbox video game that lets you bang hookers, commit drive-bys on bicycles and turn the world into the horrid, rotten place your drunk uncle always said it was, are being sued again.

This time, however, it's not some ambitious attorney trying to carve out a name for himself by taking on a billion-dollar industry (cough, Jack Thompson, cough), a former first lady hungry for political power or a scapegoat-hunting parent. It's one of the "alleged" inspirations of the game.

Singer and model Michael "Shagg" Washington filed a civil lawsuit against Rockstar Games and Take-Two Interactive in Los Angeles Superior Court claiming the companies co-opted his image and backstory and used it as the model for their controversial "GTA: San Andreas" game.

Thanks to copies of the lawsuit, we not only learned all the interesting details about the case, we also managed to find a picture of the elusive Cypress Hill backup singer modeling in a Karl Kani ad, seen above to the left.

Washington said he was invited by a "group of young video game developers" to a meeting in 2003 in a small Hollywood office to discuss the possibility of being included in a video game. The programmers asked Washington "about street life" and details of his own "troubled life ... including how the teenagers in his gang rode around on bicycles."

The meeting lasted for almost two hours without any signatures on contracts or verbal agreements that he would be part of the game.

"Essentially, he was told 'Don't call us, we'll call you,'" the lawsuit reads. "The Defendants [Rockstar and Take-Two] never did call him and the Plaintiff [Washington] assumed he had not been chosen to be any part of the project."

Cut to last July, fewer than six years after the game's initial release, Washington said he learned from a nephew that several people "suspected" he was the real-life inspiration for "C.J." He is seeking damages from fraud, copyright infringement and likeness misappropriation. He also wants a 25 percent cut from the game's profits.

The case might sound like another opportunity to cash in on a gaming giant's profits, but the evidence isn't a slam dunk on either side. Rockstar and Take-Two claim that rapper Young Maylay, aka Christopher Bellard, who provided C.J.'s voice for the game, served as the inspiration for the character and his story. On the other hand, several gaming blogs and sites, such as GamePron, noted that Washington was given a "Talent" credit in the game's credit roster.

Either way, someone better bring a lot of quarters with them to court.


[Image via KitMeOut.com]