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Legal
Fashion photographer sues over Rihanna video
By CMU Editorial | Published on Tuesday 15 February 2011
Fashion photographer David LaChapelle has launched legal action against Rihanna and her people over allegations the risqué video to her track ‘S&M’ was “directly derived” from a photo shoot he did for Vogue back in 2002.
Numerous media and bloggers noted the similarities between the Melina Matsoukas directed pop promo and the LaChapelle photo shoot when Rihanna’s video first hit the net, with even Perez Hilton, who makes a guest appearance in the vid, tweeting: “The next time you make a David LaChapelle music video you should probably hire David LaChapelle”.
Some sources have since claimed that Matsoukas had prints from the LaChapelle shoot on set while recording the video. Meanwhile, LaChapelle’s people seemingly first became aware of the Rihanna video when people called his studio to ask if they had been involved in its creation.
The lawsuit, which was made public yesterday, says that “the music video is directly derived from and substantially similar to the LaChapelle works” and that it copies the photographer’s “composition, total concept, feel, tone, mood, theme, colors, props, settings, decors, wardrobe and lighting”.
The photo man is seeking unspecified damages. Meanwhile, if you want to compare and contrast Rihanna’s video, which has been banned in eleven countries, with LaChapelle’s raunchy photoshoot, well, where better to head than the Daily Mail website?
