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Kylie sues over body parts

By Christian Catalano
June 9, 2004

The owner of pop music's most famous derriere is at the centre of fresh controversy.

Kylie Minogue is again suing Australia's richest man, Kerry Packer, this time over the reproduction of salacious photographs in his raunchy People magazine, including one where the pop diva's head was allegedly superimposed on a nude model.

Lawyers for Ms Minogue's family business KDB Pty Ltd began proceedings in the Federal Court of Victoria yesterday, alleging the Packer empire's magazine business Australian Consolidated Press Publishing breached copyright law by reproducing her image in the January 2003 issue of People.

Some of the images are believed to have been reprinted from Kylie's quasi-biography La, La, La, published in 2002.

Minogue's chief lawyer, Michael Brereton, said: "It relates to a situation where Kylie's head was airbrushed onto the body of a naked woman. The case concerns copyright breach for use of the photos."

ACP sources would not comment on suggestions that the publishing group had tampered with Minogue's image. "There's (been) no mention of anything other than a copyright issue," a spokeswoman said last night.

It is the second time in three years that Minogue has launched legal proceedings against Mr Packer's organisaton. In 2001 the two parties reached a confidential, out-of-court settlement over the singer's claims that ACP had again used her image without her authorisation.

That related to Minogue's image appearing in women's magazine Cleo as part of a two-page promotion of Estee Lauder's Tommy Girl perfume. Minogue said she had only given permission for Cleo to use her photograph to promote her tour of Australia.

It is not known how large Minogue's new damages claim will be.

Yesterday's preliminary directions hearing before Justice Peter Heerey has been set down for further directions on August 10.


This story was found at: http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2004/06/08/1086460294913.html