Sex-Scandal Card Played Against Woody Allen

Update

Sex-Scandal Card Played Against Woody Allen

Wed., Apr. 15, 2009 11:58 AM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Serge Haouzi/Maxppp/ZUMA Press

Nothing like a little sex-scandal talk to jazz up an otherwise boring legal proceeding.

American Apparel is going National Enquirer on Woody Allen in his $10 million lawsuit alleging the clothing company used his image without permission, pulling out the Soon-Yi card in a new deposition.

In the papers, filed in Manhattan federal court, American Apparel claims Allen's image isn't worth that much thanks to the decade-old scandal that erupted when he and longtime girlfriend Mia Farrow split and he shacked up with (and later married) Farrow's adopted daughter, then 22.

Allen, 73, has claimed American Apparel unlawfully swiped a shot from 1977's Oscar-winning Annie Hall for billboards in Los Angeles and New York and on its website. He pegs his going rate for such endorsements at $10 million. In his own December deposition, Allen used words like "sleazy" and "infantile" and "low-end" to describe American Apparel's hipster duds.

Looking to undercut his argument, American Apparel slammed the three-time Oscar winner for his "highly publicized sex scandal" and said it has drastically diminished his popularity and his commercial value.

American Apparel's lawyer, Stuart Slotnick, did not return a phone call seeking comment. But according to court papers, the company is seeking evidence concerning Allen's "relationship with Soon-Yi Previn, including the discovery...[of] nude pictures you took of Soon-Yi Previn."

An attorney for Allen was unavailable, but in rebuttal papers filed Wednesday, the actor's legal team called the retailer's tactics "a scorched earth approach" and a "despicable effort" to get under his skin.

American Apparel is not playing fair by trying to drag Allen's dirty laundry, not to mention info about his finances and career, to the forefront, the filing states.

Allen's camp previously called the requests for such information "vexatious, oppressive, harassing" and unrelated to the issue at hand.

Provided they can't make nice and reach settlement, the case is headed to trial on May 18, just weeks after Allen's latest Big Apple opus, Whatever Works, kicks off the Tribeca Film Festival.

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