It has been widely reported in the news and gossip blogs that Andrea Plunket, who "holds the US copyright to Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s literary creation" has been so infuriated by the homoerotic subtext in Guy Ritchie’s recent film that she has threatened to withold permission for a sequel. "It would be drastic, but I would withdraw permission for more films to be made if they feel that is a theme they wish to bring out in the future," Plunkett is quoted as saying. "I am not hostile to homosexuals, but I am to anyone who is not true to the spirit of the books."
Aside from the suspicion that anyone declaring herself to be "not hostile to homosexuals" is probably protesting too much, I must admit, my first questions, hearing about this story were: 1)Wait--the Sherlock Holmes stories aren't in the public domain? 2) Could Andrea Plunket really withdraw permission for more films? and 3) Just who is this Andrea Plunket person anyway?
So, like any Holmes fan worth her deerstalker, I did a little internet sleuthing. And the answers I uncovered were: 1)Sort of, 2)Not likely, and 3)Oh my god, you wouldn't even believe.
Andrea Plunket, I discovered, is infamous in Sherlockian circles as a sort of Orly Taitz figure, whose claims upon Sherlock Holmes are legally shaky at best. She has no connection to the descendants of of Arthur Conan Doyle, with whom she has been engaged in frequent litigation over her claimed rights to the stories—rights which have never been upheld in court. Her attempt to trademark the name "Sherlock Holmes" has been similarly unsuccessful. Jon Lellenberg, who represented Sir Arthur’s daughter Dame Jean Conan Doyle until her death in 1997 and now represents her estate, is generally regarded as the legal holder of all remaining copyrights on the work.
Despite this, the Hungarian-born socialite persists in calling herself "Administrator of The Sir Arthur Conan Doyle Literary Estate" on her website and in the media. Plunket’s claim on the Holmes stories (detailed in 5 rambling pages of mixed history, family anecdote, and byzantine legalese on her website) is through the estate of her now-deceased ex-husband, Sheldon Reynolds. Reynolds, a television producer, developed a Sherlock Holmes series in the 1950s starring Ronald Howard (not Opie, but the son of Leslie "Ashley Wilkes" Howard) and purchased the rights to the stories at a bank auction in the 1970s after one of Conan Doyle's heirs defaulted on a loan. After her divorce from Reynolds, Andrea Plunket began her as-yet unsuccessful legal crusade to be recognized as owner of the copyright.
She also began a relationship with Claus von Bülow, the accused wife-murderer played by Jeremy Irons in the film Reversal of Fortune. (Andrea’s role in the film was played by Christine Baranski, which may tell you all you need to know about her.)
Attempts by the actual Conan Doyle estate to recoup the more than $100,000 in legal fees they have accrued battling her in these copyright lawsuits have been unsuccessful, as Plunket has convinced a judge that despite her "very rich mother and father" and "incredibly wealthy husband," she herself is now broke and cannot afford to pay. The 40-acre Catskills estate--complete with tennis court, heated pool, and hot-tub---where she currently resides and operates an upscale bed-and-breakfast with her fourth husband, Shaun Plunket (himself the heir presumptive to an Irish barony) is owned, she claims, by her daughter. "I’m just the baby-sitter," she told the court.
So despite the breathless speculations in the media about whether the offended sensibilities of a cranky septuagenarian would put the kibosh on the franchise, Ms. Plunket's threats are probably toothless. But I'm sure there are many other readers just as disturbed by the thought of Holmes and Watson enjoying the love that dare not speak its name. As I have found in talking to people about my novel The Lunatic, the Lover and the Poet, which puts a bisexual spin on Shakespeare’s Hamlet, different people can have very different ideas about what is and is not "true to the spirit" of their favorite books. In a way, we do come to know fictional characters personally, and also see in them reflections of ourselves—which is why everyone’s picture is slightly different, and seeing our favorites through the lens of another person’s perspective can be so jarring.
But since Arthur Conan Doyle's death, Sherlock Holmes has been analyzed by Sigmund Freud, cryogenically frozen and reawakened in the 1980s, fought the Joker with Batman, battled Hitler and the Nazis, even been turned into a mouse. Is it really so farfetched to think that this confirmed Victorian bachelor might have been gay? And why does this speculation in particular seem to offend so many people, while showing anOedipal and neurotic Holmes raging on a cocaine bender is shrugged off as "artistic license?"
At any rate, the battle between Ms. Plunket and the Conan Doyle estate, the legal system, and the hopes of many for a Holmes/Watson romance can't go on for much longer: the work is already in the public domain in the UK and Canada, and the last U.S. copyright is set to expire by 2023.
Edited to Add:Just to make myself clear, I don't personally think Guy Ritchie means for us to take Sherlock Holmes and Watson as lovers. But as I mentioned below in the comments, I think it's interesting that the very idea of it raises such an outcry--especially since the romance with Irene Adler (in this and many other adaptations) is just as badly "out of canon," and certainly regularly blown up far beyond her fleeting presence in the books, which present Holmes as distinctly asexual. (Even the special reverence with which he holds Ms. Adler has to do with her outsmarting him, not with any physical charms.) Given that Watson, narrating these tales as he is presumed to be for a Victorian public, would have had good reason to be discreet, I don't think the reading is entirely outrageous. But then (given what I've done to Hamlet and Horatio) I wouldn't. ;-)
But it's been a fun Friday-afternoon discussion, at least--I knew I'd find a few Sherlockians on Kos! And--I hope this isn't considered "pimping" or against the rules, but for those of you who mentioned an interest in my book, you can find more about it at my website, and I must admit it has done my poor authorial heart some good to see myAmazon ranking has climbed this afternoon from its previous misery somewhere in the low three-millions to an almost-respectable-for-literary-fiction #140,860!