Sandler Movie Freed

By Stephen M. Silverman

Wednesday September 10, 1997 12:00 AM EDT

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The 1998 Adam Sandler comedy "The Waterboy" did not rip off the 1925 Harold Lloyd comedy "The Freshman," U.S. District Court Judge for the Central District of California Manuel L. Real ruled on Monday, reports USA Today and Variety. The $50 million suit against the Walt Disney Co. (which released the Sandler movie) was brought last year by Suzanne Lloyd Hayes, the great-granddaughter of the late silent screen star (Lloyd wore trademark eyeglasses, and he dangled off the ledges of a lot of tall buildings in his movies). She cited similarities between the two films, which are both about an unpopular water boy on a college football team who, by the end of the story, turns hero and gets the girl. The judge, however, ruled that no copyright was infringed.