Steely Dan demands apology from Owen Wilson
Jul 28th, 2006 | by Neil Barton | Posted in entertainment, movies, music | Comments Off
LOS ANGELES – Paging Owen Wilson. Steely Dan wants an apology.
The veteran group behind such jazz-rock hits as “Rikki Don’t Lose that Number” says Wilson ripped off its Grammy-winning tune “Cousin Dupree” for his title role as a slacker in the new comedy “You, Me and Dupree.”
In a 10-paragraph letter posted July 17 on Steely Dan’s Web site, and addressed to Wilson’s brother Luke, band leaders Walter Becker and Donald Fagen asked Owen Wilson to appear at a show in Irvine, Calif., to apologize to the band’s fans.
Wilson, in return, would get Steely Dan merchandise and a chance to party with the group.
“He would have to cop to the fact that what he and his Hollywood gangster pals did was wrong and that he wishes he had never agreed to get involved with this turkey in the first place,” says the pair.
Becker and Fagen claim that “some hack writer or producer” heard Steely Dan’s “Cousin Dupree,” about a hormonal houseguest, and “when it came time to change the character’s name or whatever so people wouldn’t know what a rip the whole thing was, they didn’t even bother to think up a new (expletive) name for the guy!”
They go on to trash the movie (a “summer stinkbomb”) and Wilson.
“Instant karma is a fact, Jack,” the pair writes.
