Woody Allen's valuable image

Another non-defamation case (at least, not directly), but still worth reporting: Woody Allen scored a settlement today against American Apparel, which had used Woody's image (in a frame out of the Oscar-winning film Annie Hall, no less) without permission. The take, although half of what Woody had sought in his suit, will nonetheless likely succeed in having the preclusive effect that was Woody's stated desire.

The more interesting part of this exercise, I thought, was what didn't end up happening. American Apparel's attorney's had threatened to call some other people from Woody's current and former orbits as witnesses - namely ex Mia Farrow, and current wife, Soon Yi Previn. Ancient history though it may be, Woody had left Mia for Soon Yi, who was 22, and Farrow's adopted daughter. The basis for calling them would, apparently, have been to show that the value of Woody's name/image had been diminished by the whole mess.

Part of the reason a settlement came out of this was that the strategy of dredging up old history would likely have failed spectacularly. The facts of the situation were played out in the press 17+ years ago, and since the basis for the "tainted image" assertion is what was perceived by the public to have happened, rather than what actually happened, there is no reason for Mia or Soon Yi to testify at all. Instead, we would likely have seen what we would have seen anyway, a parade of actuaries calculating the actual value of Woody's visage based on the sum total of his life events. Moreover, this case follows the immortal words of Bela Lugosi, "there's no such thing as bad publicity." In this reality TV-deluged age of celebrity sex tapes, splashing this case across the headlines would have boosted, rather than diminished, Woody's commercial appeal, and heightened the recovery due.