Earlier this morning, American Apparel settled a $5 million lawsuit with Woody Allen for a series of billboards that depicted the pint-sized filmmaker without his permission. This comes after months spent preparing a holey defense that the Allen’s scandalous marriage had sullied his image too much to be worth the damages he sued for. More recently, Dov Charney chimed in to remind people this was really a first amendment issue.
The billboards and images from the Annie Hall movie were intended to be a parody/social statement and comedic satire to provoke discussion and public discourse about the baseless claims that had been made against American Apparel and myself, society’s reaction to lawsuits that delve into an individual’s private sexual life and the media’s sensationalism of such matters.
While Charney still thinks they had a good case, his legal defense evidently realized the distinction between free and commercial speech, so they agreed to pay out half of the $10 million dollars Woody was demanding.
The Terminator franchise is what got me interested in the movies in the first place. The first was a suspenseful cyberpunk thriller, and the second became my favorite movie of all time. The third fell short of intelligence but still solid nonetheless, and the TV series was a good addition to the franchise. Nearing the end of May, the fourth and latest film addition of the beloved sci-fi franchise will open, and viewers are in for a sheer summer spectacle.