French cosmetics giant Lancome is taking actress Uma Thurman to court in a bid to stop her from suing them first.
New York, May 9 : French cosmetics giant Lancome is taking actress Uma Thurman to court in a bid to stop her from suing them first.
The 'Kill Bill' star decided to sue Lancome after she found out that the company was using old advertisements featuring her on Asian Web sites and a Canadian billboard to promote their products, even though she was no longer the face of the company.
Her lawyer Bertram Fields now wants the company to pay the millions it owes Thurman.
"Look at the huge free benefit Lancome gets from using her. The French want to accept that benefit without paying for it," the New York Daily News quoted him, as saying.
"$100,000 is not a reasonable settlement offer or anywhere near a reasonable settlement offer. Obviously, the French have decided they won't even try to resolve this amicably. So they have filed this sneak attack," he added.
Lancome, however, filed a suit in Manhattan Supreme Court claiming that it never "knowingly or intentionally" used the actress' image.
It added that the Web pages were "inadvertently archived" and never meant to be publicly available.
In their suit, the company is asking for the court to declare that Lancome did not violate Thurman's contract and that she is not entitled to the money her lawyer has demanded.
Lancome's laywer Peter Raymond said: "[Lancome] pulled the pages off as soon as they found out about them. They didn't even know they were there."
ANI