Tyler Perry testified in a copyright infringement lawsuit yesterday, Wednesday, that he did not steal material from a woman’s play for his movie “Diary of a Mad Black Woman.”

Donna West is suing Perry in federal court, claiming that the actor-screenwriter lifted material from a script she wrote titled “Fantasy of a Black Woman”  that was based primarily on her personal experiences. She reportedly wants a jury to award her family all the profits made from Perry’s 2005 film, which garnered around $50 million.

Perry insisted that his screenplay is an original, but under the questioning of West’s attorney, said he did not know whether anyone actually saw him write the script, according to The Marshall News Messenger’s report for its Thursday editions.

Perry’s attorney said his client doesn’t have an original copy of his script, because he allegedly sends all his work to the Library of Congress for a copyright.

West’s attorney, Aubrey “Nick” Pittman, suggested that Perry copied concepts from other films and incorporated them into his box office hit. He asked Perry whether he had taken ideas from “Mrs. Doubtfire,” “The Color Purple,” “An Officer and a Gentleman,” and Martin Lawrence’s role in “Big Momma’s House.”

“I never stole anything from anybody — never,” Perry stated as he locked his eyes with the jury.

Jurors on Tuesday watched the film and listened to a reading of the script from West’s play that was performed in 1991, at the Junior Black Academy of Arts and Letters at the Dallas Convention Center.

L.D. Dabney, an associate of West and a theater arts enthusiast of the Dallas area, testified earlier that when he first saw Perry’s film in July 2006, he thought it was based on West’s play since he already knew what was going to happen from one scene to the next.

Testimony is, nonetheless, expected to resume later today, Thursday.

[Source]