Tough-guy actor and martial arts expert Chuck Norris has sued publisher Penguin over a book he claims unfairly exploits his famous name, based on a satirical internet list of "mythical facts" about him.
Penguin published
The Truth About Chuck Norris: 400 facts about the World's Greatest Human in November.
Author Ian Spector, an undergraduate at Brown University, and two websites he runs to promote the book, including
www.truthaboutchuck.com, are also named in the suit.
The book capitalises on "mythical facts" that have been circulating on the internet since 2005 that poke fun at Norris's tough-guy image and super-human abilities, the suit said.
It includes such humorous "facts" as "Chuck Norris's tears cure cancer. Too bad he has never cried" and "Chuck Norris does not sleep. He waits," the suit said, as well as "Chuck Norris can charge a cell phone by rubbing it against his beard."
"Some of the 'facts' in the book are racist, lewd or portray Mr Norris as engaged in illegal activities," the lawsuit alleges.
Norris, who rose to fame in the 1970s and 1980s as the star of such films as
The Delta Force and
Missing in Action, says the book's title would mislead readers into thinking the facts were true.
"Defendants have misappropriated and exploited Mr Norris's name and likeness without authorisation for their own commercial profit," said the lawsuit.
The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, seeks unspecified monetary damages for trademark infringement, unjust enrichment and privacy rights.
Norris, whose real name is Carlos Ray Norris, claims in the suit he is protective of what his name is associated with. He has recently made US headlines for backing Republican presidential candidate former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee.
Norris, an author himself of fiction and non-fiction books, has been in more than 20 films. The actor was a six-time undefeated World Professional Middle Weight Karate champion who in 1997 became the first man in the Western Hemisphere to be awarded an 8th degree Black Belt Grand Master recognition in the Tae Kwon Do system, the suit said.
A spokesman for Penguin was not immediately available for comment.