Here’s the opening from a 2016 Slate article by Duncan Fyfe: “Virtually every film in modern memory ends with [a disclaimer that the movie is fictional, which] . . . must be the most boring thing in every movie that features it. . . . For that bit of boilerplate, we can indirectly thank none other than Grigori Rasputin, the famously hard-to-assassinate Russian mystic and intimate of the last, doomed Romanovs.” The Strange Reason Nearly Every Film Ends by Saying It’s Fiction (You Guessed It: Rasputin!)***

Here’s the history, as recounted in the article. In 1916, Prince Yusupov invited Rasputin to his home, and then murdered him with cyanide-laced cakes, a gun, or some combination thereof. In 1932, Hollywood produced a movie about the events, called Rasputin and the Empress. Apparently the real story wasn’t lurid enough, so MGM added a wholly fictitious scene in which Rasputin rapes a character who would have been easily identified as representing Yusupov’s wife.

Yusupov sued, claiming the movie defamed him by depicting him as the murderer, but the court found for MGM. Yusupov himself had bragged about the murder, and truth is an iron-clad defense to a claim of defamation, as is a reasonable belief in the truth of the allegedly defamatory statements.

Then Yusupov sued on behalf of his wife, and this time, he won. The court noted the movie begins with an explanation that, “This concerns the destruction of an empire … A few of the characters are still alive—the rest met death by violence.” The court went on to state that “the studio might have stood a better chance had they incorporated a disclaimer stating the exact opposite: that the film was not intended as an accurate portrayal of real people or events” (as paraphrased in the Slate article).

Who knew the boring legalese had such a fascinating history?

You may have noticed The Dogs of Looser Island has its own Disclaimer. In addition to the legal language, there are some sweet stories about real experiences in the San Juan islands that acted as muse for the entirely fictitious stories that followed. Check it out if you’d like to meet Mona the camel, the inspiration for Norm - the cheerfully combative dromedary who ruined the Easter Parade, in the first Dogs of Looser Island.

***Here’s the full citation to the Slate article, in case the link doesn’t work: “The Strange Reason Nearly Every Film Ends by Saying It’s Fiction (You Guessed It: Rasputin!)” by Duncan Fyfe, Slate 8/26/2016 https://slate.com/culture/2016/08/the-bizarre-true-story-behind-the-this-is-a-work-of-fiction-disclaimer.html