The billboards that sprung up in Hollywood and New York in 2007 depicted Woody Allen as a Chasidic Jew — long beard, Peyos, black hat — and featured Yiddish text meaning “the holy rebbe.”
The actor-director wasn’t amused by the makeover.
Allen sued the advertiser, American Apparel Inc., last year for $10 million, claiming it didn’t have permission to use the doctored frame of him from an Oscar-winning film on the billboards and on a Web site. Barring a last-minute settlement, jury selection was expected to begin Monday morning in federal court in Manhattan.
A spokeswoman for Allen, Leslee Dart, said Sunday that he planned to take the witness stand Monday as the trial’s first witness. She declined further comment.
Stuart Slotnick, an attorney for Los Angeles-based American Apparel, said his client’s First Amendment rights were at stake.
“The freedom of expression is what this case is all about,” he said.
Court papers filed on Allen’s behalf describe the 72-year-old plaintiff as one of the most influential figures in the history of American film, and say he believes maintaining strict control over his image has been critical to his success.
The papers claim Allen hasn’t done commercials in the United States since 1960s, when he was a struggling standup comic. The billboards, he says, falsely implied he endorsed the trendy clothing line known for its racy advertising — a “blatant misappropriation and commercial use of Allen’s image.”
Allen himself has said he considered the billboards an “appalling” and “mortifying” violation of his privacy.
(Source: CBS2 HD)
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6 Responses
The case has nothing to do with Yiddishkeit. It has to do with intellectual property rights to the scene from one of his (typically obnoxious) films, and the right to control one’s image (under both intellectual property law and state statute, along with a common law privacy argument that is probably less significant). Had the case involved any other image from one of Mr. Allen’s films, the legal issue would be the same.
Some great day, he’ll realize, this would have only improved this “comedian’s” tragic image.
Mr. Allen won. The defendant gave up and paid $5 million. It was a simple intellectual property issue.
Mr Allen settled out of court for $5 million.
Mr. Allen will have to face the real Judge one day, think about that…
Yes, that’s called copyright infringement. Please, you don’t think they new the tradeoff risk for publicity? What’s disturbing is the apparel company’s choice of text for the billboard. That shows a sort of insider knowledge that is a bizayon and belies their “innocence.”