Eight professional models are suing a Newburgh strip club for allegedly using their images, without payment or permission, to promote the business.
The models sued Exotic Island Enterprises Inc., doing business as The Mansion Gentlemen”™s Club & Steakhouse, and CEO Keith Slifstein, on Oct. 17 in federal court in White Plains.
The use of their images on The Mansion”™s Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts makes it “appear that they worked at or endorsed The Mansion,” the complaint states.
Telephone and email messages to The Mansion requesting comment were not answered.
The women depict themselves as world renowned professional models whose earnings potentials are dependent on good will and reputation. They claim that The Mansion took images from their own social media pages and altered them to make it appear as if they worked there as strippers or endorsed the club.
Brooke Banx of Travis County, Texas, for instance, appears on The Mansion”™s Facebook page in January 2016. She is shown wearing a scanty Pittsburgh Steelers top, next to a post that says, “No sexier place to watch the Steelers vs. Broncos!! #Mansion.”
Jaime Edmondson-Longoria, wife of San Francisco Giants third baseman Evan Longoria, and a former police officer, Miami Dolphins cheerleader and Playboy Playmate of the Month, is used in a similar post on the same day, wearing a Seattle Seahawks top.
The other models include:
- Alana Campos, Los Angeles, who has been published in Playboy and appeared in campaigns for Arden B and Target;
- Jessica Hinton, Los Angeles, who has appeared on “Baywatch” and hosted TV”™s “Victory Poker”;
- Ursula Mayes, Orange County, California, who was “suitcase model #5” on the game show “Deal or No Deal” and who has appeared on “The Jay Leno Show”.
- Jaclyn Swedberg, San Bernadino County, California, who has worked on TV series such as “Badass”;
- Brooke Taylor-Johnson, Santa Barbara, California, who has appeared in Maxim magazine and on billboards for Fredrick”™s of Hollywood and Coors Light; and
- Tiffany Toth-Gray, Orange County, California, who has been featured in Maxim and Seventeen magazines.
Each claims that The Mansion created the false impression that they worked there as a stripper or endorsed the strip club.
That hurts their earnings potentials, according to the complaint, because companies and brands are less likely to hire models who work as professional strippers or promote strip clubs.
They accuse the defendants of false advertising and false endorsement for commercial purposes, under federal law, and violation of civil rights, deceptive trade practices and defamation, under New York law.
They are asking the court to order the defendants to stop using their images, and they are demanding damages to be determined at a trial.
The women are represented by John V. Golaszewski of Casas Law Firm in Manhattan.
