Lancôme Faces Up to Uma

Cosmetics maker sues former spokesmodel after her camp claims the company owes her for using her pic in ads after her contract expired

The former face of Lancôme looks angry.

The French cosmetics maker has sued its erstwhile spokesmodel in an attempt to ward off her attempt to collect at least $1 million for the alleged use of her picture in foreign ads after her contract expired in 2005.

Per the complaint filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Lancôme maintains it never "knowingly or intentionally" continued to use Thurman's face to push its products and that any webpages still featuring her old photos were never meant to be publicly available.

But according to her attorney, Thurman, who inked a multimillion-dollar deal with Lancôme in 2000, says her pics showed up on Asian websites and on a Canadian billboard touting the company's Miracle skin-care line. She has not formally filed suit against Lancôme, which is looking to have a judge preemptively rule that the company did not wrongfully use her image.

Lancôme "pulled the pages off as soon as they found out about them," Peter Raymond, one of the company's lawyers, told the New York Daily News. "They didn't even know they were there."

They are also open to a settlement, he said.

But in a letter to Lancôme, Thurman's attorney, Burt Fields, wrote that even $1 million hardly fits the bill.

"Look at the huge free benefit Lancôme gets from using her," Fields told the Daily News. "The French want to accept that benefit without paying for it."

"Obviously, the French have decided they won't even try to resolve this amicably," he said. "So they have filed this sneak attack."

Better this sneak attack than some, of course. Lancôme's action comes two days after avid Uma fan Jack Jordan was convicted of stalking and harassing the Kill Bill star. The presiding judge remanded him to protective custody and ordered a psychological evaluation. Sentencing is scheduled for next month.