In a ruling released yesterday, Manhattan Federal Judge Shira Scheindlin said that LaChapelle “successfully alleges” that the 23-year-old R&B star, her record label, and video director, may have plagiarised provocative images from his work for her S&M video.
Scheindlin reportedly cited several alleged similarities between the music video and the New York snapper’s work – including “hot pink and white-striped walls”, “women wearing frizzy red wigs” and “black tape wrapped around a man”.