Rihanna may be a victor in one lawsuit,but today she’s facing a new one.
One the brink of her 26th birthday, the singer is being sued by photographer Philipp Paulus for what he alleges is plagiarism. The German photog filed an injunction claiming she used his vision for her 2010 “S&M” music video. He claims she modeled her video, set, production and photos from his fashion series Paperworld. In his version, the model is taped with large X marks to a wall and covered by plastic, which is nearly identical to the same scene from the highly sexualized video featuring the Bajan bad girl.
Today, he is seeking damages after the issue was not resolved privately. While he is NY-based; the case will be seen in a court in Strutttgart, Germany on April 15th. If Rih Rih is not victorious in this case, there will be a ban on all showings of the music video.
Stay tuned as this story develops.
Photo Credit: Rihanna’s S&M Video and Paulus’ Website