Calif. models sue West Palm Beach strip club
Eight women claim club used photos without permission.
WEST PALM BEACH — A suburban West Palm Beach strip club owes eight California models as much as $1.8 million for using their photos to lure customers without their permission, according to a lawsuit filed last week in Palm Beach County Circuit Court.
I n t h e l a ws u i t a g a i n s t Ultra Gentlemen’s Lounge, Miami attorney Sarah Cabarcas Osman claims the eight women are top-flight models and business women who never authorized the club on Congress Avenue just west of West Palm Beach to use their photos in promotional advertisements.
The club, formerly operated as T’s Lounge, “gained an economic windfall by using the images of professional and successful models for (its) own commercial purposes,” Osman wrote. In addition to not being paid, the women “sustained injury to their images, brands and marketability by shear affiliation with Ultra Lounge and the type of club (it is),” she wrote.
In an affidavit attached to the lawsuit, a Los Angles modeling agent estimated the club owes the women $1.78 million for using their photos.
The lawsuit is similar to one Osman filed in 2015 against the owner of Cheetah Gentlemen’s Club on behalf of nine other models. The lawsuit filed against Faneuil Entertainment, a Pompano Beach company that owns Chee- tah strip clubs in West Palm Beach, Pompano and Hallandale Beach, is still being litigated.
The manager of Ultra Gentleman’s Lounge wasn’t available for comment.