Art photog David LaChapelle is suing pop vixen RIHANNA, her record label and a video director claiming his copyrighted images were the basis for her controversial new video, "S&M" and were used without his permission.
The lawsuit goes into detail using the LaChapelle’s copyrighted image "Latex" as an example — noting a portion of the Rihanna video shows the left side of the singer’s face "against a blue background, wearing false eyelashes and close-fitting, shiny, pink latex hood, with her mouth open and placing a small candy on her tongue" – a striking similarity to his work.
LaChapelle also claims that director Melina Matsoukas was "asked by Rihanna or persons acting on her behalf to create a LaChapelle-esque music video" and that "prior to the hiring of Matsoukas, another well-known director was asked to create a LaChapelle-esque inspired music video for Rihanna and that director rejected the offer."
In addition, LaChapelle alleges that " the storyboards used for the Music Video consisted of or contained prints of the LaChapelle Works or other LaChapelle photographs."
