NEWS: Dita Von Teese Smites Pretenders

CELEB: Dita von Teese and Her Set of Amazing Lawyers

Dita von Teese is a beloved burlesque dancer, the wife of a rock star, and proof that girls aren't as icky as you thought they were at the age of five. She's also, according to an interview in Britain's Esquire magazine, one pin-up girl who isn't afraid to protect her intellectual property.

After seeing that a sequence in the film "Charlie's Angels: Full Throttle" featured leading lady Cameron Diaz inside a giant martini glass, performing an obvious imitation of Dita's own signature routine, the 34 year old fetish model took legal action.

Dita's willingness to protect herself was hard won, according to the star, and developed from dealing with unscrupulous photographers and others who sought to target her during her years as a novice model. One notable ploy was an attempt to trick the adult model into allowing others to use her nude images in phone sex adverts (it would take someone as hot as Dita to convince you to have sex with a phone).

Dita's full interview can be read in the November issue of Esquire, on stands now. Those of us in the United States, however, can tune in to this week's episode of America's Next Top Model which will, among other things, include a sequence where Dita herself teaches the show's remaining contestants the art of burlesque.

Go ahead and watch. You might learn something.


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What a bitch, I mean people are always going copy and imitate what you do especially if you're famous. What makes her so special?

there's inspire, imitate and copy, and then there's just plain stealing.
i guess you never created anything meaningfull or you'd know what it meant you poor soul.

I hope you have a really awesome flame shield.

So I guess the tattoo artist who created Amina's chest piece is a bitch as well for seeking legal action against the guy who ripped off the design and tattooed it on someone else?

Or when Lithium Picnic needs to deal with people who steal his photos and try to use them without giving him any kind of credit...is he in the wrong too when he goes after those people?

Let me guess - that's just copying and imitating too right?

Imitation vs. STEALING something that is a trademark or a piece of your work are two totally different things, especially when it's what you do to make a LIVING.

Way to show that this went WAY over your head and that you're freaking clueless.

On the contrary, Dita Von Teese is not only an adult model but she is also a role model in terms of the adult industry's protection of intellectual property. On one hand there is the mainstream mega-entertainment industry ripping off the adult industry's creative edge. On the other hand there are the sleazy scammers and spammers that steal adult content for their advertisements and web pages.

The Suicide Girl models should follow Dita's lead. Not only for her style of erotica, but her business model.

That was my initial reaction too, what with copyright law being mostly used for evil these days. But really, this sort of scenario is exactly what it's supposed to be for. She came up with her act, and then someone else copied it and profitted off of that. It's not fan service that she's suing into oblivion, it's a feature film. Even if you want to hate copyright holders, I think the movie industry should still be your pick for "villain" here.

In short, if it were a freely-distributed, fan-made video, sure, in that case fuck her. But it's a movie studio, the very ones who lecture us about respecting "intellectual property."

When I saw that scene in Charlie's Angels I figured that Dita had been consulted. Hell, I thought that they had borrowed her big glass. If she didn't know in advance it must have been shocking when she saw it.

Damn Cameron Diaz who wants to see her in a martini glass? Go Dita you legend...

Hmmm, the idea of a girl in a martini glass really wasn't a Dita "invention." I've seen plenty of "girls in martini glasses" to think that Dita was just using an already popular concept.

Today I learned about the second i in plagiarism.

ok- well Dita STOLE Bridgets (hefs girlfriend) routine. Playboy should sue her dumbass. Hypocrite

Hey Id hit it

Can someone help me come up with a "doing Hef isn't an original idea either" joke here? I like the concept, but I'm really floundering on the delivery.

Stealing movies is bad! Stealing movies from theiving movie makers is very bad!

It's Manson truly, I love him infact adore him. But ladies and gentlemen if i married marilyn manson it would go to my head too. She is just carrying a humungous ego and has nothing else to do with it.

...because she was a nobody before she married Brian Warner. Yeah.

"For once we are through with the delusion that we can own expressions, we can focus on the real question of how to create expressions-context and all-that will best serve to help us find ourselves and eachother ... and, then, to transform what we find."

What a better way to discuss plagiarism of intellectual property than to do just that.

Every time I see Dita...I start hating Marilyn Manson for being such a lucky bastard.

*sigh*

Not a relevant comment I know, but the esquire cover included pretty much decided it for me.

it is slightly ironic that what she does is pin up photos. these are poses and themes taken almost exactly from art and photos done years ago. where is the line drawn - that can she do a shot that is almost an exact Betty Page pose in a very similar outfit shoot it in black and white, or a real life photo of a Vargas illustration and not be infringing? I am not slamming her - just a question really. but I must say - most of the photos I see of her are not newish looking photos - but recreations of an older style pin ups. is this such a limited style that all erotica has to follow stuff done in the 40s and 50s.

I really like the word "smite", but I never get to use it in sentences, "smite" and "daring daylight robbery." They just don't come up enough in conversation.

The new Beyonce video has a martini glass act in it too, I wonder if she'll sue her ass as well. I'd love to be the lawyers that have to closely scrutinise both acts then get paid 1000's per hour to do so...