Crushable » lawsuit

Kim Kardashian Thinks Her Doppelgänger Ruined Her Reputation But It’s Really The Other Way Around

Amanda Chatel — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 21:14:22 +0000

If Kim Kardashian isn’t making a fuss, throwing around accusations and being a complete conniving asshole then you can be certain that hell has frozen over. But that day has yet to come.

Back in July, the ego that never sleeps of the Kardashian sisters Kim, filed a law suit against Old Navy’s parent company The Gap for using her likeness in one of their Old Navy commercials. In the suit she claims that the doppelgänger, Melissa Molinaro, not only has her style (because Kim wears Old Navy now?) but the way she is portrayed dancing around and singing deliberately infringes upon Kim’s public persona.

While it may be easy for Kardashian to place blame on such events as Bebe dropping she and her sisters’ clothing line and even more recently she being replaced by a dog in the Skechers’ 2012 Super Bowl commercial because of this infringement, the fact is only Kim is to blame. If any lawsuit is going to be filed in this equation, it should be Molinaro suing Kim for ruining her career.

Who in their right mind at this point would want to hire a woman who could possibly be mistaken for Kim Kardashian? And since People magazine took a poll of how many consumers were “fooled” into thinking that Molinaro was actually the real deal and discovered that 47% thought it was her, that’s even further confirmation that Molinaro just might be as toxic as Kim. Ew. No one wants to be Kim. Her persona and her brand have become so synonymous with gut-wrenching bile that even Travis Bass, co-owner of NYC’s restaurant Red Egg said “I’d pay her $600,000 personally not to go to Red Egg. Kim Kardashian would be crushing to us.” Yikes.

Duped consumers aside, the likeness is apparently so striking that as of June, Molinaro was dating Kim’s ex-boyfriend, New Orleans Saints running back Reggie Bush. In some cases, imitation is the sincerest form of flattery but this is just plain creepy and probably a bad career move on the part of Molinaro to be honest. No one wants to be second fiddle to a woman who is fast becoming one of the most loathed personalities out there.

Although we would never suggest anyone contribute to this sue-happy society by running down to the nearest court and filing a lawsuit against anyone, it would make far more sense for Molinaro to be doing the suing. How the hell is she supposed to become a household name if all anyone sees is Kim Kardashian when they look at her?

Tell us what you think.

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Parting Tweet: Jose Conseco Is a Real Casanova

Liana Maeby — Thu, 11 Aug 2011 22:30:23 +0000

Jose Conseco recently tweeted this delightful “poem,” presumably in response to his ex-girlfriend, fitness model Leila Shennib, who has filed a restraining order against the former baseball pro. Leila cites a history of harassment, some of which has gone down on Twitter. Which is, of course, the classiest place to be a jerk.

Move over, Philip Levine: we’ve got a new Poet Laureate in town.

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At Brooklyn College, Do Landlord Complaints Land You In The Looney Bin?

Meghan Keane — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 18:26:12 +0000

At Brooklyn College, complaining about your landlord can land you in a mental hospital. At least that’s the claim of Chinemerem Eze. Chinemerem was an honor student at the school, but says that after she complained about cameras in her apartment, she was sent to Kings County Psychiatric Hospital for two weeks. But it looks like there’s a little more going on.

According to The Daily News:

“Eze went to the school’s security office for help after hearing “comments about her body” coming from a vent in her off-campus basement apartment in Flatlands.

She then discovered a hidden camera inside the space. She also suspected somebody had set up a defamatory website about her, the suit says.

When she approached school security guards, they were skeptical and notified college psychologist Sally Robles. Robles then asked “a series of personal questions pertaining to her psychological state of mind,” before calling an ambulance to take Eze to hospital, the suit says.”

That sounds incredibly intense, and Eze is now suing for a mental hospital stay that she says was against her will. But there are a few holes in her story.

Because there is a lawsuit going on, Brooklyn College spokesperson Jeremy Thompson cannot say much about the case. But he tells Crushable:

“EMS are the ones that are on scene in those situations, and they took her to the hospital. It wasn’t something that the college personel were involved with.”

Also, her MySpace page has some interesting things going on. It looks like Eze would like to change her name. And if these comments are from her, it does in fact seem like she has some paranoia issues:

“I hereby change my name legally from Chinemerem Ihuoma Eze to Sophia Abraham McWill. I wish to execute my will, Living Will and ower of Attorney using the name Sophia Abraham McWill. The general public should please take note!!! Signed : S.A.M.”

Morevoer:

“I am BY FAR SANER than any of you dumbFucks will EVER BE at every point in time…so I would GLADLY destroy it all to make sure YOU PAY”

Unfortunately, emphatically proclaiming your sanity doesn’t always work…

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Liana Maeby — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 22:12:40 +0000

New York judge rules six-year-old can be sued – For riding her bike and hitting an elderly woman. When she was four. This makes us even more terrified of ever having children. (Reuters)

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Harlow Madden Stalked By X17 Photo Agency

Drew Grant — Wed, 27 Oct 2010 17:14:54 +0000

Nicole Richie and Joel Madden are fighting back at paparazzo photo agency X17 after the company known for candid photos of Lindsay Lohan passed-out in her car parked their vehicles outside 2-year-old Harlow Madden‘s pre-school. While all photo agencies are pretty scummy, X17 works hard at being deplorable: stalking celebrity children, hunting down celebs to catch them at their worst moments, and in some cases, even resorting to libelous stories in order to get their “exclusives.”

Full disclosure: X17 once demanded a $3k repayment on a photo I put on the now defunct Jossip.com after finding it on a Google image search. This is not the standard practice for unauthorized pics (usually agencies will ask you to take down their exclusive content before they demand payment). I ended up being in debt for months. Though one thing you can say about Brandy Navarre‘s company: they fight dirty for the photos they take, and they aren’t willing to give them up without making you pay. They sued and won a case against Perez Hilton for using their pics, which is one of those cases where you just don’t know who to root for.

But lets digress: Instead of going after X17 with a restraining order or alerting the police, the couple instead has taken it to the net. Joel writes:

“Dear @x17online please stop having your photographers wait at my kids school…”
“The car that was there today was @x17online. Two men in a black nissan Registered to a Lepe Isidro in Redmond, WA”
“I’ve learned a lot of self control & acceptance. Still never gonna be ok with grown men creeping outside schools…”

Meanwhile Nicole writes on her blog:

“You do not get to [buy] a camera, and think that gives you a free pass to shadow my child. These are strangers, grown men, stalking young children. You think that’s ok?

“Here’s a better visual: Pulling up to school and seeing grown men slouched in black windowed cars outside of a preschool, all day. I’m not even there, so you cannot say you are following me… You are stalking the children…

“…I am going to do a background check on each and every person that I see there. For the safety of my children and others…If I find out anyone has a suspended, restricted or invalid license, I will have them thrown in jail…”

While more drastic measures may seem necessary, Joel and Nicole are savvy-enough to know that winning cases against paparazzi that aren’t technically breaking any laws can be hard to do. Better to alert the world to their sleazy practices, and put an industry-wide fatwa against Brandy and her cronies. Information is the greatest weapon of all, right?

(Photo via WENN)

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5 Best Quotes From ‘Tuna Meltdown’ Saga

Drew Grant — Wed, 20 Oct 2010 17:13:27 +0000

We have a special fondness in our hearts for punny New York Post headlines, but we may have to award first place to the title of this epic epic story of a man who ate 10 cans of tuna a week for years, and is now suing Bumblee Tuna and the supermarket who sold the fish to him after he developed symptoms of mercury poisoning.

I Had a Tuna Meltdown is the best article we’ve read all week, and not just because of the title, or the ridiculousness of a guy gunning for a settlement as only Americans who pour scalding McDonald’s coffee on themselves can. We also love the article for its amazing choice of quotes and descriptions:

1.”Lee Porrazzo of White Plains told The Post he and his roommate and workout partner Roland Muccini, would make regular runs to the local Stop & Shop to load up on cans of tuna fish thinking they were eating healthy.”

2. “But the 48-year-old BMW salesman…says he started scarfing the seafood in January 2006…the brand was ‘usually on sale’ for $1 a can.”

3. “‘One day I got a call from the [state] Health Department,’ he said. ‘They said, ‘Normally we don’t contact people, but your levels are so high we had to contact you.’”

4. The Health Department staffer also told him to stop eating tuna.

5.He said he used to bench-press 400 pounds but has stopped working out. ‘It changed my life,’ he said. ‘I haven’t been to the gym. I haven’t been able to do anything.’”

Amazing. We wonder if this guy and Jeremy Piven will start a foundation for victims of fake Mercury poisoning?

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Liana Maeby — Fri, 08 Oct 2010 16:28:56 +0000

Dora the Explorer sues Nickelodeon – Caitlin Sanchez, the 14-year-old voice of the adventurous animated character has been forced off the show because of that pesky puberty thing. But she isn’t going out without a fight. Caitlin claims the network mistreated her and cheated her out of money. No word from that weird little monkey dude. (MSNBC)

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Drew Grant — Fri, 20 Aug 2010 19:02:48 +0000

We Are Living In A Material World – And Madonna is embroiled in a lawsuit because another clothing manufacture claims that it trademarked the phrase “Material Girl” for their clothing line before Madonna and Lourdes launched their Macy’s brand. (via Wonderwall)

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Lindsay Lohan Involved In Yet Another Civil Lawsuit

Drew Grant — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:25:58 +0000

Because it’s not a month of the year unless Lindsay Lohan has to appear in court (or not) with some crazy new charge, an L.A. designer boutique Church claims that the actress has only paid $180 of her $17,060 clothing bill that she racked up in 3 months. Totally believable! It’s not like this family hasn’t tried the “I’m a celebrity, give me this stuff for free” stunt before. Although at this point, we wonder how much Church owners David Malvaney and Rodney Burns plan on getting out of Lindsay, considering that she has to be broke by now (seriously, when was the last time she worked?).

Sure, take her to court, but as soon you start going to the press about how much Lindsay owes you for clothes, we know you’re just looking for the free P.R. that comes with “Lindsay Lohan shops here.” For whatever that’s worth, these days.

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‘American Idol’ Band Wants A Piece Of The iTunes Pie

Amanda Ernst — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 15:10:14 +0000

Band members who play on American Idol have filed suit against the show’s producers claiming they’re not getting paid for the use of their musical talent on song files sold in iTunes and as ringtones.

Reports TMZ:

“Since the 4th season Idol honchos have been ‘selling digitally-encoded audio files containing those soundtracks.’ The suit claims some of the audio files were sold as songs and some as ringtones. According to the suit, Idol execs never got permission from the musicians to make the sale, in violation of the union agreement.”

The musicians are seeking $500,000 and a contribution to their pension fund. Sounds fair to us. What do you think about this suit? Do you think the musicians should be paid for the additional sale of their work?

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