Writer seeks credit for Latifah movie

NEW YORK -- A New York lawyer who claims she had the original idea for the box-office hit "Bringing Down the House" filed a $15 million copyright lawsuit Friday against star Queen Latifah and the movie's other producers.\nMarie Flaherty claims the movie is a rip-off of "Amoral Dilemma," a screenplay she wrote several years ago about a lawyer who meets a prisoner online, only to have the prisoner wreak havoc in his life.\n"Bringing Down the House," a comedy starring Latifah and Steve Martin, is about a prisoner who meets a lawyer in a chat room, then weasels her way into his life in hopes he can exonerate her.\nThe movie has been atop the box-office charts since it was released earlier this month, raking in $83.3 million through last weekend.\nFlaherty claims Boston attorney George N. Tobia Jr. agreed to represent her in 1999 as she tried to sell "Amoral Dilemma"