14 DAY TRIAL // Last week, Lenny Kravitz performed at the Gröna Lund theme park in Stockholm, Sweden, and became the talk of the entire Internet when his leather pants ripped open as he was shredding on his guitar. As was to be expected, there were many people with camera phones in the first rows and they happened to snap photos right the instant this happened.
These photos are still available online as of the time of writing but they won’t be for much longer, if Kravitz and his people have their way. They’re threatening celebrity blogs, big and small, with legal action unless they take the pictures down.
Lenny Kravitz is “privately horrified”
That Kravitz’s tight leather pants ripped at the crotch wouldn’t have been such a disaster had he worn knickers underneath. Since he didn’t, this meant that the world got to see him in his most revealing position yet - and that’s saying a lot for a man who has an impressive collection of artistic nudes dating back to the ‘90s.
The point that he and his attorneys are trying to make right now is not that the world saw what it saw, but that it shouldn’t have. Those fans at the concert who happened to click on their camera right when his pants ripped open had no right to make the photos public on social media.
Moreover, websites have no right in running them, not without approval from Kravitz. And he’s not about to give it, just in case you were wondering.
“Kravitz’s legal team have warned about the images, stating that they breach their ‘clients’ copyright, human rights, right-of-publicity and performer’s rights’,” NME reports.
As we speak, several celebrity blogs have confirmed receiving cease-and-desist letters from the star’s attorney, but seeing that they still have those photos up, it’s probably safe to assume they have no interest in complying.
A matter of privacy
If Kravitz manages to get his way and is successful in (more or less) removing the embarrassing photos from the Internet, he will set a precedent for other entertainers. No other celebrity caught off guard on camera did this before, and certainly not entertainers on stage.
His argument is that, as an artist, he is protected by copyright laws that bar anyone from capitalizing on his image and brand. As a person too, he is protected by laws, and all of these were breached when the photos were published on Twitter and in the blogosphere.
He’s ultimately making this a matter of privacy. At the same time, he’s trying to control Twitter and the Internet in general, and we all know how unlikely that is to ever happen.