Former ‘Mob Wives’ Star Karen Gravano Sues “Grand Theft Auto V” For $40 Million

The hit video game “Grand Theft Auto V” is illegally imitating life, according to a former “Mob Wives” star.
Karen Gravano, the daughter Salvatore (Sammy the Bull) Gravano, filed a $40 million lawsuit against the makers of the massively popular game, claiming her image and life story have been incorporated into the mafia-themed game without permission.

“Notwithstanding the fact that plaintiff has the utmost respect for the writers and creators of the Grand Theft Auto V video game…her story is unique and is hers to tell,” according to papers filed in Manhattan Supreme Court Monday.
The ripped-off character is Antonia Bottino, said Gravano’s lawyer Thomas Farinella.

The animated hottie is rescued by the game's main character after getting buried alive off a dirt road.

She then recounts how a murder charge was pinned on her father and how the family was forced to be “moving around safe houses in rat-hole hick towns where no one comes looking,” according to an online synopsis of GTA V.
Her fictional dad, former Gambetti family underboss Sammy (Sonny) Bottino, eventually became a snitch, acquiring many enemies. He would not allow her to participate in a show called “Wise Bitches,” an obvious takedown of the VH1 reality show.

Sammy Bottino is widely believed to be based on Gravano's father, a Gambino underboss who became a turncoat, helping to bring down John Gotti.
Karen Gravano was a cast member in the first three seasons of “Mob Wives,” which follows women whose fathers or husbands have ties to the mafia.

She was kicked out before the fourth season, which debuted last December.

But she’s still allegedly in play on the Rockstar Games smash hit, which became the fastest entertainment product to gross $1 billion, reaching that target after only three days after its release last fall.
The lawsuit claims that besides having her image used without consent, Gravano “is releasing a second book containing the parts of not-so known aspects of the story used by defendant.”
It added that the game producers could have sought her permission “with relative ease, which may have (averted) this action."

The court papers ask for $20 million in compensation and another $20 million in punitive damages.

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