Woody Allen ended his legal maneuvering of over a year yesterday when he accepted a $5 million settlement with American Apparel. The settlement came literally at the 11th hour—the morning the trial was scheduled to being.
Allen had accused the retailer of using an image of him dressed up as a rabbi to promote their brand without his consent. (Though you have to admit, it does sound pretty funny.) At any rate, Allen released a statement after the settlement saying that he hoped this end result "would discourage American Apparel or anyone else from ever trying such a thing again."
As for the endlessly-pervy head of American Apparel, Dov Charney? He insists it wasn't even his decision to settle. "I'm not sorry of expressing myself," he said. Any more than he's usually sorry about exposing himself, apparently. This is a huge blow for Charney, who we've reported has been in no small amount of legal wranglings of late, most of the decidedly creepy-sexual variety. With this force him to reconsider his sketchy ways, avoiding sticky situations and lewd (or unlawful) advertising campaigns? Eh, probably not.
This particular battle had turned decidedly personal once Charney objected to Allen's argument that the billboards had devalued his image by insisting that the actor's own actions (a.k.a. marrying his adopted daughter) had already done the devaluing. So, yeah, you can imagine Allen was more than a little peeved.
