Woody sues American Apparel over rabbi billboard ad

Film director Woody Allen has filed a lawsuit against the clothing chain American Apparel. The ultra-trendy makers and purveyors of T-shirts and luminous leotards used an image of Allen dressed as a rabbi, taken from his 1977 hit film Annie Hall,  and plastered it across billboards in New York and California last May. The famously private writer-director is suing for $10m, saying he neither gave permission nor received compensation for the use of his image.
 
Allen’s lawyers claim he has a golden rule that he never endorses products in the US, which makes the billboards "especially egregious and damaging".

American Apparel CEO Dov Charney should have no trouble finding a good lawyer - he has faced four separate sexual harassment lawsuits in the past. Charney, 39, who describes himself as having “progressive management policies”, has been known to give vibrators as gifts to employees, and shoot photographs of his staff wearing swimsuits and leotards for the company website.

Finding the money, if it comes to that, might be a different matter: despite owning 180 stores across the US and Canada, and with new ones just announced for Beijing and Shanghai, American Apparel recently posted a fourth-quarter profit of a mere $3m. ·