He’s the other Steve Zissou

In the end credits of Wes Anderson’s “The Life Aquatic With Steve Zissou,” there’s an acknowledgement that Steve Zissou (played by Bill Murray) is a real person.

No, it’s not a joke.

Though writer-director Anderson (“The Royal Tenenbaums,” “Rushmore”) made the name up, the script clearance department at Buena Vista Pictures found a real Steve Zissou. That Zissou is a criminal trial lawyer based in Bay Side, N.Y., not a burned-out underwater explorer.

“When I found out it was part of the title, I was a little annoyed. It’s a unique name, and I really didn’t want to share it,” says Zissou, 49, but he observes he had few legal options because Anderson’s film wasn’t directly about him.

“They could have made a movie about a New York lawyer who was an anti-Semitic terrorist pedophile, and I still couldn’t do anything about it,” Zissou says. “If it’s about the real Steve Zissou, then maybe you have a shot, but then you have to prove damages.”

Perhaps to be on the safe side, the movie studio negotiated with Zissou over use of his distinctive name. He declines to answer questions about the agreement’s confidential terms except to say he is acknowledged as a New York attorney in the film credits.

T. Ernest Freeman, a Houston-based entertainment attorney, says obtaining permissions “really gets down to due diligence.”

“The question is, if it’s a private citizen, would the person whose name is being used be readily identifiable? It’s a subjective test applied to the movie,” Freeman says.

Case in point: More than 11 years after Richard Linklater’s cult hit “Dazed and Confused” opened in theaters, a trio of Texans (Andy Slater, Bobby Wooderson, Richard “Pink” Floyd) is suing the filmmaker and Universal Studios Inc. for “defamation” and “negligent infliction of emotional distress.” The suit claims that Linklater did not obtain permission to use the names of former high school acquaintances in his film.

Freeman, representing the plaintiffs in that litigation, says that in the case of Steve Zissou, New York attorney, the studio’s legal department was probably playing it safe. “Any diligent studio would make sure there wouldn’t be a problem.”

Despite his original discomfort at the thought of his name being used, “it’s been, to my surprise, a lot of fun,” Zissou says. “And I think Bill Murray is America’s greatest living actor.”