On Monday (August 28), a judge dismissed a lawsuit by two men claiming they were tricked into renting the 2019 romantic comedy Yesterday. The lawsuit, which was filed last year by Peter Michael Rosza and Conor Woulfe, alleged that they rented the film after believing that actress Ana de Armas (Blonde) had a substantial role in the movie.
While de Armas is featured in the trailer, she does not show up in the film. Her scenes were cut before the final movie was released. Originally, de Armas was cast as a secondary love interest for the main character. Rosza and Woulfe sued Universal Pictures for $5 million for deceptive marketing practices.
“Because consumers were promised a movie with Ana de Armas by the trailer for Yesterday but did not receive a movie with any appearance of Ana de Armas at all, such consumers were not provided with any value for their rental or purchase,” the lawsuit read.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, U.S. District Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that the lawsuit “lacks standing” because Woulfe’s “injury is self-inflicted.” Woulfe actually rented Yesterday a second time on the Google Play platform thinking de Armas would appear in the director’s cut of the movie.
Wilson added there was no reason to believe the “version of Yesterday they accessed on Google Play would be a different version of the movie” than the first one they watched.
Yesterday tells the story of Jack Malik (Himesh Patel), a struggling musician who finds himself living in a world where no one except him knows The Beatles ever existed. Jack becomes famous when he starts performing their songs and takes credit for writing them.