-
Lindsay Lohan - Source: Reuters -
Related
Actress Lindsay Lohan has sued E*Trade Financial Corp for $142
million, saying a "milkaholic" baby girl who appeared in a recent
commercial was modelled after her.
Lohan alleged that online brokerage's use in the ad the girl, also
named Lindsay, improperly invoked her likeness, name,
characterization, and personality without permission, violating her
right of privacy.
In her lawsuit filed Monday in a Nassau County, New York state
court, the 23-year-old actress sought $71 million of compensatory
damages and $71 million of exemplary damages.
She also demanded that E*Trade stop running the ad and turn over
all copies to her.
Lohan's lawyer Stephanie Ovadia did not return requests for a
comment.
An E*Trade spokeswoman declined to comment, saying the New
York-based company had not reviewed the complaint.
The New York Post reported the lawsuit earlier Tuesday.
It said Ovadia maintained that Lohan has the same single-name
recognition as celebrities like Oprah Winfrey and Madonna.
E*Trade's ad was shown in the February 7 Super Bowl, which
according to Nielsen media drew about 106.5 million American
viewers, a record for a US television program.
It is part of a series of ads featuring babies who play the
markets.
In the ad, a baby boy apologizes to his girlfriend through a video
chat for not calling her the night before because he was on
E*Trade.
The camera switches to the girl, who asks suspiciously, "And that
milkaholic Lindsay wasn't over?"
It then switches back to the boy, who uneasily replies "Lindsay?"
before another baby girl, presumably Lindsay, moves into the frame
and asks, "Milk-a-what?"
Lohan was ordered in 2007 to serve one day in jail, undergo an
alcohol education program and spend three years on probation after
admitting to drunk driving and cocaine possession.
"It is clear to me that my life has become completely unmanageable
because I am addicted to alcohol and drugs," she said in a
statement at the time.
Various problems have made the onetime child star in Disney movies
a staple of Hollywood gossip pages and the paparazzi.
A spokesman for Grey Group, which the Post said produced the
E*Trade ad, told the newspaper the "Lindsay" in the ad was named
after a member of its account team.
Grey Group declined to comment on Tuesday.
"Lindsay" was in 2008 the 380th most popular name for newborn
American girls, according to the US Social Security
Administration.
That was down from 241th in 2004, when Lohan's popular film Mean
Girls was released.
The E*Trade case is Lohan v. E*Trade Securities LLC, New York State
Supreme Court, Nassau County, No. 004579/2010.
