[Lee Stewart]

Surely you’ve seen the blurb in movie credits that says, “This is a work of fiction. Any similarities…” blah, blah, blah. It’s in there because, in 1933, MGM decided to make a film about the death of Rasputin and the fall of the Romanov reign. Thing is, one of the men who had helped kill Rasputin was not only still alive, but also making money off a memoir that bragged about his part in the Mad Monk’s murder. Even though the character was renamed, the assassin was able to successfully sue the studio for libel.