American Apparel is fighting Woody Allen’s $10 million lawsuit accusing it of damaging his reputation by arguing that the company can’t ruin what the film director already spoiled himself.

The 73-year-old Allen started the fight against American Apparel Inc. when he sued the company last year for using his image on the company’s billboards in Hollywood and New York and on a Web site. Allen said he had not authorized the displays.

Allen testified at a December deposition that he considered the company’s advertising to be “sleazy” and “infantile.”

Now American Apparel plans to make Allen’s relationship to actress Mia Farrow and her adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn the focus of a trial scheduled to begin in federal court in Manhattan on May 18, according to the company’s lawyer, Stuart Slotnick.

Mia Farrow starred in several of Woody Allen’s movies during a relationship with the director that ended in 1992 when she discovered he was having an affair with her oldest adopted daughter, then 22. Allen married Soon-Yi Previn in 1997. (…)

Lawyers for American Apparel have complained that Allen has refused to turn over much of the information they have demanded to prepare for trial.

Among their demands were documents concerning any endorsement requests that were withdrawn after the sex scandal with Farrow and Previn became public.

The documents defined sex scandal as “your relationship with Soon-Yi Previn including the discovery … (of) nude pictures you took of Soon-Yi Previn.”

The lawyers also requested documents concerning Allen’s public image and reputation, including his contention during his deposition that he was a “special kind of entity” or a “special taste.”

Allen’s attorneys said the request for documents related to the sex scandal and custody battle were “vexatious, oppressive, harassing” and not relevant.

{ WCBS | Continue reading | Previously }

{ American Apparel ad, Vice magazine, Nov. 2008 | Fake AA Ad Artist Now Real AA Ad Artist | images: stereohell }

Last night, Stereo Hell exclusively shared with ANIMAL this nifty video presentation (click the red arrow) revealing that all of the guerrilla AA posters were in fact not physical posters, but expertly Photoshopped fakes. (…) “I already feel sad thinking about walking in Soho and not having to take pics of billboards,” says SH’s Imp.

{ Animal NY | Continue reading | Gawker }

» ALL POSTERS: MORE »

To see each other truly, to love each other only, Without deceit, diversion, without shame or lies, With no desire eluding us, never remorsefully, To live as one, give the heart to every moment’s flight;

Se voir le plus possible et s’aimer seulement, Sans ruse et sans détours, sans honte ni mensonge, Sans qu’un désir nous trompe, ou qu’un remords nous ronge, Vivre à deux et donner son coeur à tout moment;

{ Alfred de Musset, Sonnet, 1849 }

photo { fake AA ad, Carroll Gardens, NY | stereohell | related: She’s got jungle fever }

{ fake American Apparel ad, Kenmare st, NYC | more }

{ Career Club Shirts ad, 1967 | American Ads of the 60s }

{ American Apparel ad, 2008 | L mag }

{ Fake AA ad on Kenmare St, NYC }

related { Spencer Taylor, 20, went to the Three Rivers Cinema multiplex, costumed as the Joker, to steal Batman posters and other collectibles. | Smoking gun | Continue reading }

{ American Apparel ad, Tokyo, 2007 }

{ Betty Beauty from Clairol/L’Oréal, a dye for pubic hair, is being advertised on New York City subways. | NY Times | Continue reading }

{ American Apparel matches featuring french actress Lea Seydoux | related: Lea Seydoux flashes her boobs for AA }

{ Lea Seydoux, AA booklet }

previously { American Apparel ad with french actress Lea Seydoux }

{ Copyranter }

The “carré blanc” (”white square” in French) was a little white rectangle that used to appear at the lower right corner of the TV screen to tag adult rated programs in France (from 1961 until the late 1980s). It usually announced explicit sex scenes rather than violence. Its original shape was a square, and later became a rectangle. It disappeared and was replaced by another rating system (similar to the MPAA one) with the arrival of cable television.

{ Read more, in French | Wikipedia }

{ AA ad, Vice magazine | via copyranter }

Faced with a $10 million lawsuit over a short-lived advertising campaign last year, American Apparel defended its use of iconic actor Woody Allen’s image on two billboards in New York and Los Angeles, claiming the stunt “was meant strictly as a social parody.”

In a statement to DNR, American Apparel company representatives said although it normally uses the two billboards for commercial purposes, “we also use them as a vehicle for non-commercial, social and political commentary. (…) We had no intention of selling garments through the use of Mr. Allen’s image … We will make every effort to resolve this with Mr. Allen in an amicable way,” company representatives said. (…)

Yiddish text reading “the Holy Rebbe” accompanied the ad, as did American Apparel’s company name. (…)

In 1987, Allen sued Men’s Wear Outlet, which had featured a Woody Allen look-alike model in an ad promoting the apparel store. Two years earlier, Allen had obtained a $425,000 settlement from a national video retailer that had also used an Allen impersonator for a magazine ad.

{ DNR | Continue reading | Huffington Post }

Clearly, movie director Allen does not want to be associated with chronic inappropriate masturbator and accused sex harasser (and fellow Jew) Charney. Because then, you know, people might think Allen had weird sexual issues.

{ Gawker | Continue reading }

We see images every day of airbrushed, photoshopped models placed in the most sexual of positions—remember Dolce & Gabbana’s “gang rape” ad? And thanks to technology, models are nothing more than objects to be shaped and molded by marketers, fashion editors and photographers. Moles and acne are erased, eyes enlarged, ears trimmed, hairlines filled, teeth straightened and necks and waists lengthened and stretched. “We’re always stretching the models’ legs and slimming their thighs,” a Manhattan photo retoucher recently told Newsweek. And in some cases hands, feet and even legs are replaced when a subject’s parts don’t add up to a perfect whole.

So why then am I so offended when I see real-looking women who choose to display themselves for American Apparel—the rare company that doesn’t airbrush, manipulate or otherwise alter the photos in their ads? Shouldn’t I view them as brave, sexual, confident? Refreshing, even? (…)

Former porn star turned Ph.D. sexologist Annie Sprinkle says American Apparel’s promotions tap into American culture’s contradictory views about sex. “They can be fun, sexy and positive,” Sprinkle says, or they can be a turnoff—depicted as dirty and ugly. “But that’s why it’s a great ad campaign,” she says. “As a feminist, I like the ads and I like the graffiti [the New York billboard was defaced with]. It makes us think about how we view sexuality.”

{ Newsweek | Continue reading }

related { Landing strip on Lafayette and Great Jones }