Lady Miss Appropriated

Lady Miss Kier, flamboyant leader of early-90s dance-pop trio Deee-Lite, demands $750,000 from Sega for unauthorized use of her female drag-queen image. A lawsuit in Los Angeles claims the video gamer offered Miss Kier $15,000 to base the character Ulala, in the games Space Channel 5 and Space Channel 5 Part 2, on the club diva, but she refused. The suit has already achieved its primary purpose of reminding people that Lady Miss Kier is still alive, and making ends meet through her DJing company B.I.T.C.H. (Being In Technological Courageous Harmony). Sadly, Super DJ Dmitry and Jungle DJ Towa, currently in the rave witness protection program, were unavailable for comment. You can compare a picture of Lady Miss Kier in her heyday with a screen shot of Ulala. If you ask me, a lawsuit by Tickled Pink would have a better chance in court.

Comments

[JD Weiner]

Geez, is this "Stupid Lawsuit Week"? (Or "Decade"?) I was just mulling the sad tale of Penny Arcade and "American McGee's 'Strawberry Shortcake'" v. American Greetings. (I have a copy of the original, naturally, if anyone's interested...)

[Anonymous]

Man. I'd almost forgotten about them. Now I've got a bad case of early 90s nostalgia.

[David]

"Groove Is In The Heart" remains one of the *best* ultra-groove-funk-pop songs of the eighties and nineties.

[Anonymous]

stupid lawsuits are what happens when the economy tanks.

[Eric]

If they offered her money to license her image and her "ohh la la" catchphrase, and then used them anyway after she said no, why is it a stupid lawsuit?

Maybe she doesn't need $750,000 to make her whole, but it sounds like Sega kinda screwed her.

And Groove Is In The Heart is a great, great song.

[joe]

...and Bootsy Collins in a great, great bassist.

[Sven]

Thanks alot, BarTel. Now I'll have that @#$@$&& slide whistle in my brain all day.

[junyo]

Sadly, Super DJ Dmitry and Jungle DJ Towa, currently in the rave witness protection program, were unavailable for comment.

God, have you people ever heard of google? Amazon? Super (actually "Supa") DJ Dmitry has stayed busy remixing other people's stuff and dropped his own CD in 2000, and Towa Tei (Jungle DJ Towa) has only released 5 CDs worth of fairly well recieved techno music since Deee-Lite broke up. They're not Britney Spears, but they didn't drop off the face of the earth either.

[Anonymous]

You call Kier a drag-queen. She was a guy?!

[Will]

I remember the video because of Bootsy Collins - man, if that guy isn't from another planet I don't know who is.

[Anonymous]

No, she was a chick, who looked sorta like a drag-queen. But hot. A hot chick drag-queen. Does that make sense?

[JD Weiner]

Eric: I only say this one is stupid because a) "ooh la la" as a saying is hardly unique to Kier, and b) from what I've seen, the character doesn't resemble her anyway. Would anyone have guessed it was her if not for her lawsuit? But I will say that Sega's legal department screwed up badly: either don't ask permission at all, or if you ask and don't get, change things so much there's no argument at all. Asking, not getting, and then proceeding anyway only shows that the idea was in their minds, but had they not asked at all, they'd be able to argue that any similarities were purely coincidental.

Joe: Possibly "Best Bassist EVER". I've got P-Funk, Rubber Band, Praxis, Zillatron, and Axiom Funk sitting in the CD rack across the room...

[Hakan]

You people are very misleading and many of you are just commenting without knowing or caring for details.

For example, Eric says "from what I've seen, the character doesn't resemble her anyway. Would anyone have guessed it was her if not for her lawsuit?"

Eric are you sure you looked at the right photos? Lady Kier is talking about the look she had during 1993-1994 and you can find the links to those photos at http://www.haktanir.org/deee-lite/ , below her statement.

[Nick]

Wow, I think you need to read up on this a little more. The issue is not wether or not the character looks like her, it is a character she had for her stage show back in those days that would be projected on a screen. I really don't think she needs any publicity, she seems to be doing just fine DJing which is what she says wants to do. Some very exclusive clubs and parties. There is a lot more to the story than just this...