The groove is in the courtroom for Lady Miss Kier.
The colorful singer of eclectic dance-techno trio Deee-Lite is suing the Sega Corporation for allegedly swiping her flamboyant persona and using it as the basis for a character in one of its video games without her approval, Reuters reports.
The lawsuit, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court this week, accused the U.S. division of the videogame giant of copying her look--which includes knee-high boots, short skirts and a pink ponytail--for a character named "Ulala" in its 2000 videogame adventure, Space Channel 5. The suit also contends that Ulala is a subtle allusion to her trademark cry of "Ooh La La," which she has shouted in several songs.
Not so Deee-lightful.
In her suit, the performer turned DJ (real name Kierin Kirby) claims that Sega proposed to pay her $16,000 to license her name, image and songs for the game, but that she rejected their offer. And it wasn't until Kirby later learned that the videogame maker went ahead and used her resemblance anyway that she decided to take the matter to court.
Lady Miss Kier's suit seeks more than $750,000 in damages. Meanwhile, Sega is going ahead with an updated version of the game for PlayStation 2 set to hit stores in Japan later this summer.
Reps for Sega did not return phone calls seeking comment. Kirby was also unavailable.
She's currently grooving to her new gig as a DJ touring clubs throughout Europe and Russia.
Lady Miss Kier first shot to fame fronting dancehall faves Deee-Lite in the New York club scene in the late '80s, before the trio--also featuring Super DJ Dmitry on guitar and Jungle DJ Towa on keyboards--scored their first big success with the hip-shakin' acid-tinged hit "Groove Is in the Heart" off their 1990 album World Clique. The record also included contributions from legendary bass player Bootsy Collins, who got his start thumpin' for James Brown.
Sales of their subsequent two follow-up releases failed to live up to expectations, and the group disbanded in 1996.
Lady Miss Kier went on to become a DJ, forming her own company called B.I.T.C.H. (Being In Technological Courageous Harmony) and spinning everything from techno and house to reggae, break, funk and soul.
A solo album is reportedly in the works and due out later this year.