William Shatner takes aim at Hamilton condo developer

Flashy Toronto condo developer Brad Lamb can now count a starship captain among his enemies.

William Shatner, famous for his role as Captain Kirk on the original Star Trek series, took Lamb to task on
Twitter overnight for using the names and likenesses of some of Hollywood's biggest stars as part of promotional materials for Lamb's "Television City" condo development in Hamilton.

The project, which is proposed on the site of CHCH's current headquarters on Jackson Street West, listed sample floor plans with prices for suites named after TV celebrities on its website. It also included caricatures of the stars it was channeling. 

In a statement to CBC News issued late Wednesday afternoon, Lamb said he intended the move to be a playful homage to TV stars he admired but said he would remove the names from the materials.

Shatner's name was among them originally listed, advertising a two-bedroom, 1,370-square-foot unit that's priced at $1,023,900.

"Mr. @BradJLamb, it has come to my attention you are using my name & caricature likeness in your brochures to sell real estate," Shatner tweeted. "You are also using the name & likeness of @hwinkler4real & others I do not recall giving you permission to use my name or likeness."

Shatner tweeted a list of floor plans, which included names like Mr. T, Bob Barker, Betty White, Johnny Carson, Jerry Seinfeld, Mary Tyler Moore and more.

Shatner tagged White, Jay Leno and several others in another post, though he stopped short of any Wrath of Khan–style rage.

The floor plans appeared to have been removed from the project's website Wednesday morning, with a "coming soon" page in its place. A cached version of the website shows the floor plans listed online.

In the statement, Lamb said the site had an "obvious television connection" as it was the longtime home of CHCH. He chose names of his favourite TV personalities to "pay tribute to their legacy and to add an element of playfulness to our project," he said.

"Naming condo units in this industry is commonplace and I have yet to meet a person who purchased a condo merely because it was named one thing or another," the statement continued.

"My intention was to honour these stars, but upon receiving William Shatner's tweet, we have since removed all mention to any person's name on all Television City collateral. New names will be announced soon."

Predictably, Twitter had a field day over an intergalactic starship captain firing a photon torpedo warning shot at a local condo developer.

Some took issue with Shatner's placement on the hierarchy of suites:

Others felt like their favourite stars were being short-changed:

And some people just had some fun with it:

adam.carter@cbc.ca