Holy Crazy Lawsuit Batman!

Did you know that there's a southeastern city in Turkey named Batman? The mayor of that city, Huseyin Kalkan, is now suing Christopher Nolan and Warner Bros. for royalties to The Dark Knight! Kalkan explains: "There is only one Batman in the world. The American producers used the name of our city without informing us." Variety digs deeper into the craziness, pondering why "no one from the town of Batman has explained why it took so many years to take legal action. Batman first appeared as a comicbook character in 1939 and the TV series started in 1966. Tim Burton's first bigscreen rendition came out in 1989." Hmm, wonder if it has anything to do with the fact that the latest film is racking it up at the box office, "about to pass the $1 billion mark." But wait, it gets stranger! Kalkan's series of charges also includes placing the blame on Nolan & Co. "for a number of unsolved murders and a high female suicide rate on the psychological impact that the film's success has had on the city's inhabitants." Allegedly some former natives of Batman have had problems registering their businesses abroad.