NEW YORK: American Apparel Inc settled film director Woody Allen's lawsuit over the company's use of his image in advertising for $5 million, Allen said on Monday as the case was about to come to trial.The American film director sued the clothing company more than a year ago after his image appeared on billboards in New York and Los Angeles. Allen says his reputation was damaged and the image from his film "Annie Hall," which showed him dressed as a Hasidic Jew, was used without his consent."Five million dollars is enough to discourage American Apparel or any one else from ever trying such a thing again," Allen said outside federal court in Manhattan.Allen, 73, who says he does not sell his image for commercial profit in the United States, said depositions revealed American Apparel believed fear of publicity would keep him from taking action. But American Apparel founder Dov Charney had argued that the ads, which also appeared on the Internet, fell under free speech rights and were intended for comic satire and not commercial profit."The billboards were designed to inspire dialogue. They were certainly never intended to sell clothes," Charney said in a statement on his Web site.
Friday, August 14, 2009 MUMBAI: A 26-year-old woman died Thursday of H1N1 swine flu in the southern city of Bangalore, raising India's death toll from the virus to 20, authorities said.The death was the first reported in India's information technology capital, the Press Trust of India reported.Meanwhile in Pune, the worst-affected in India, two more victims of the virus died Thursday, raising the death toll in that western city near Mumbai to 12, the report said. The victims were an 11-month-old boy and a 75-year-old old woman.US media reported movie halls, schools and colleges were ordered closed Thursday for three days to a week in Mumbai, the commercial and financial capital of the country, as fear of the pandemic spread.Prajakata Lavangare, a spokeswoman for the government of Maharashtra state of which Mumbai is the capital, said similar orders were issued in Pune, which is also located in the state.The woman who died in Bangalore was identified only as Roopa, a teacher in...
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