Melodrama over Melania Trump cake
SEVNICA: When Donald Trump was elected president of the US last month, the Pizzeria Rondo in this Slovenian town created a cake named after his wife Melania, who grew up there.
It is mascarpone enriched with strawberry mousse with small sweets coloured gold and silver on top.
The pizzeria also offered a burger called Trump, notable for the pepperoni it featured.
But this week a lawyer representing Melania Trump issued a statement saying that the names Trump or Melania Trump are protected trademarks.The burger has been renamed the Presidential Burger.
“Using a photograph for commercial purposes is not allowed without a consent of the person on the photo,” lawyer Natasa Pirc Musar said.
Jars of locally-made honey with Melania’s picture have disappeared from shop shelves in the past few days. The cakes are sticking with the label for now on the grounds that they only use her first name.
“After consulting Mrs Trump we only warned the public that there are borders... but we did not send concrete warnings or call anyone specifically,” Musar said.
The legal intervention may have dampened immediate hopes in this town of 4 500 people that it can benefit from its link to international celebrity and political power, although some are optimistic that it will in due course.
Melania was born in a hospital in Novo Mesto in 1970, when Slovenia was part of the for mer Yugoslavia, and was raised in Sevnica.
She started modelling at the age of 16, then pursued a career in Paris and Milan before moving to New York in 1996. She married Trump in a lavish wedding in Florida in 2005. – Reuters