This was a quote given by Peter Riva, grandson of Marlene Dietrich, panelist and President of the International Film History Foundation, at the Virtual Humans 3 Conference on Tuesday and Wednesday, Fall 1999. The hot story at the conference was breakthrough technology and its affects on the rights and dignity of celebrities, alive and deceased. The technology in the spotlight was uncovered by Virtual Celebrity Productions, a branch of Global Icons Inc., created to market photo-realistic, three dimensional representations of celebrities. Selections of an actor or actresses film footage are digitized by a sophisticated computer. Then, the computer extrapolates a three dimensional database based on the contours of the face and head in mention. This database is then used to place the celebrities head and face in place of a living actor or actresses head and the result is a section of film in which the celebrity comes alive again, if only in virtual space. At the conference, Global Icons CEO, Jeffery Lotman, had rather interesting ideas on this. In an air of excitement, Lotman said "Can you imagine doing a brand new film with Marlene Dietrich?"

There were, however, panelists in the conference who were skeptical of what this could do to the dignity and memory of deceased celebrities and the families who try to protect them. Joseph Beard, of St. Johns University School of Law had a few comments on the subject. "I think the single biggest issue," he said, "…is the misuse of the digital image, whether its a living person or a deceased celebrity." But Edward Rosenthal, a well known lawyer representing several well known celebrities including Marlene Dietrich, said optimistically that, "The moment of death should not be the end of an actors career."

Mr. Riva was quoted saying that Dietrichs estate has spent over a million dollars protecting the rights of his grandmother. "Dietrich is not Dead," Peter Riva said. "To most of the world she’s alive as she ever was." Addressing heirs of other deceased celebrities, he said that the task is "to take these iconic performers, maintain their essences to the best of our abilities… then find the new Picassos, the new creative people, with the tools to take this art form to the next level."

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