'We didn't ruin your reputation, you did that yourself' - American Apparel slags Woody Allen over his lawsuit

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Mon, 2009-05-18 14:56

martin dufresne

From National Post stories - MONTREAL, May 17 -- A lawsuit pitting well-known Montrealer Dov Charney against Oscar-winning screenwriter and director Woody Allen is scheduled to kick off Monday in a Manhattan courtroom. Charney, the founder and chief executive officer of American Apparel Inc., is defending himself against a $10 million lawsuit Allen launched in March 2008 over use of a frame from his Academy-Award-winning 1977 movie Annie Hall on billboards in New York and Los Angeles and the clothing company's website two years ago. The suit alleges the frame of Allen shown dressed as a Hasidic rabbi falsely implied he sponsored, endorsed or was associated with American Apparel and accuses the company of "misappropriation and commercial use of Allen's image." "Charney's lawyer, Stuart Slotnick says he will be demanding records showing whether Allen's highly publicized custody battle involving ex-girlfriend Mia Farrow and her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn (Woody's current wife) had affected his earnings..." American Apparel says it didn't damage Allen's reputation with its advertising campaign, since the director has already ruined it himself. Lawyers for the retailer contend sex scandals involving Allen have meant that his name has already been dogeared."

Comment: It's rather ironic that AA should use as ammunition Allen's sexual relationship with his (adopted) daughter when they themselves keep inundating Canadian public space with full-page alluring pics of barely pubescent women in displays vividly suggesting sexual exploitation...

Mon, 2009-05-18 15:28

Tommy_Paine

Actually, it's all settled:

http://www.thestar.com/entertainment/article/635896

A pox on all their houses.

Mon, 2009-05-18 20:00

martin dufresne

I don't know about thieves but, with the help of a few legal eagles, there seems to be some degree of honour among lechers.

Mon, 2009-05-18 20:34

jas

Well, it didn't look like American Apparel had much of a case. Sounds like Allen wasn't arguing that they ruined his reputation, rather that the unauthorized use of his image implied an endorsement of their product. It does seem strange they would take that without asking. Do images of celebrities become public domain after a certain amount of time?

Mon, 2009-05-18 20:55

Tommy_Paine

I got you babe....I got you babe....

It's complicated. In the U.S., it's 70 years after the author's death, 120 years after creation or 95 after publication (whichever is shorter) for corporate copyright. Not sure how that effects images.

The last time copyright laws were adjusted in the States was in 1998: The Sony Bono law. Hence the seemingly weird begining to this post.

Mon, 2009-05-18 21:10

martin dufresne

jas: "Sounds like Allen wasn't arguing that they ruined his reputation, rather that the unauthorized use of his image implied an endorsement of their product. It does seem strange they would take that without asking."

More like an endorsement of Charney as aggrieved public figure...

Here is how he justifies the ad in a Guardian article:

Charney protested in his defence that the billboards had only been up for a week in a few streets of New York and Los Angeles. He insisted that he had no commercial ambitions in putting up the posters but rather had wanted to make a social comment about the similarity in the way that both he and Allen had been treated at the hands of the media.

Both men have been subjects of controversies of a sexual nature. Allen was embroiled in a long fight with his former partner Mia Farrow after he began an affair with her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn whom the film director has since married.

Charney has been involved in several highly publicised sexual harassment suits brought by former employees, none of which were proven.

In a statement, Charney said it was ironic that he now found himself having to explain to Allen the meaning of the joke behind the billboards.

By making an allusion to the film Annie Hall, from which the image of Allen was taken, he intended to comment about tabloid scandal-mongering. The specific scene of the film shows Allen in the role of Alvy Singer at a dinner hosted by Annie Hall's non-Jewish family. The character feels so out of place at the table that he imagines himself as an Hasidic Jew.

Charney said his idea was to use that personification of discomfort as a metaphor for what he and his company were going through at the time during the sexual harassment lawsuits.

"The billboards were designed to inspire dialogue. They were certainly never intended to sell clothes," he said.

Charney even threatened to bring in Larry Flynt in defense of his freedom of speech before his insurer reined him in. Ah, hubris...!

Mon, 2009-05-18 21:46

jas

Okay, I get it now. I guess Allen didn't find it quite as amusing. Ouch.

Tue, 2009-05-19 01:36

martin dufresne

Actually this death wish/wannabe story has the making of a classic Allen script. Too bad he is so far past his prime... and unable/unwilling to touch it, of course. Some people would probably kill for the part of the deadpan P.R. assistant fired by Charney for expressing skepticism early on...

Tue, 2009-05-19 10:05

Michelle

Haha! This is hilarious. Two creepy sleazeballs duking it out in court! Gotta love it.

And yeah, you've gotta figure that after fucking your stepdaughter under your wife's nose, and having that splashed all over the tabloids for years on end during a messy divorce battle, "endorsing American Apparel" probably isn't going to ruin your reputation much further! :D