Katherine Heigl drops $6 million lawsuit against Duane Reade, reaches settlement
This April, Katherine Heigl filed a $6 million lawsuit against the drug store Duane Reade. Their offense? An innocuous tweet in which they posted a paparazzi photo of Heigl carrying Duane Reade grocery bags. A Duane Reade rep tweeted “Love a quick #DuaneReade run? Even @KatieHeigl can’t resist shopping #NYC’s favorite drugstore.” They gave her a shout out on Twitter and everything, assuming it was NBD. Three weeks later, Heigl filed the lawsuit. It’s unknown whether or not she had her lawyer issue a cease & desist first, or whether she asked the company to remove the tweet after it was posted.
Nearly five months later, and Duane Reade and Heigl have reached a settlement. The drug store gave an undisclosed donation to Heigl’s animal charity.
Katherine Heigl has dropped her $6 million lawsuit against the business after they posted paparazzi shots of her carrying the store’s branded bags on their Twitter and Facebook accounts without her consent.
The ‘Knocked Up’ star had accused them of violating New York civil rights statutes which protect use of likenesses for purpose of trade.
The 35-year-old actress is now believed to have come to an agreement with Duane Reade, who will make an undisclosed contribution to the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation in exchange for her dropping the suit at the Manhattan Federal Court.
The star set up the animal-welfare charity with the help of her mother following the death of her late brother in a car accident in 1986.
Katherine’s lawyer, Corey Field, told The Hollywood Reporter: ‘The parties have agreed to keep the terms of the agreement confidential.’
The [actress] had claimed the chain tried to profit from the photo without her ‘knowledge or approval’ by sharing the image featuring the company’s promotional slogans.
The offending tweet, which has now been deleted, read: ‘Love a quick #DuaneReade run? Even @KatieHeigl can’t resist shopping #NYC’s favorite drugstore’.
Peter Haviland at Ballard Spahr added to The Hollywood Reporter: ‘Katherine Heigl and Duane Reade have worked out a mutually beneficial agreement.’
I wish Duane Reade wouldn’t have caved, but I get it. It’s easier to reach a settlement than go to court. It’s nice that the money is going to charity, although I question the validity of this lawsuit. $6 million for one tweet of a photo that the drug store didn’t even take? She should have asked them to delete the tweet and that’s it. Suing seems excessive to say the least.
Maybe Heigl wanted to make sure she wouldn’t get any more negative publicity ahead of her new show, State of Affairs, which comes out on NBC in early November. I doubt it will do well but we’ll see.
photo credit: WENN.com
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