Long-time Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC) ring girl, Arianny Celeste, is back in legal news.
This time, Celeste — as well as 24 other professional models — has filed a lawsuit in the southern district of New York against a trio of strip clubs for false endorsement, defamation, negligence and unjust enrichment, according to a report from Bloody Elbow.
The clubs in question are Diamond Club Gentlemen’s Cabaret, Lace Gentlemen’s Club and Stiletto’s.
From the report:
According to the complaint, the models brought the action against Defendants for “theft, alteration, and unauthorized publication of sexually suggestive images of Plaintiffs, each of whom are world renowned professional models, in order to promote their strip clubs…” Celeste and the other models further allege that their images were misappropriated, intentionally altered, and used “in order to make it appear that they worked at or endorsed Show Palace and/or Sin City. In the case of each and every Plaintiff, such appearance was false.” The Complaint goes on to allege that “the implication of Defendants’ use of Plaintiffs’ Images is that they are each strippers.”
Bloody Elbow was able to get a copy of the Celeste’s official complaint, with the biggest issue being that advertisement for the aforementioned clubs promoted its events by suggesting Celeste was indeed a stripper with in its ranks.
Check it out:
Celeste is an American model, business woman who is consistently recognized as one of the most popular personalities of the UFC, where she has worked as an Octagon Girl since 2006. Celeste is among the most sought after talents in the modeling world, having appeared on the covers of some of the world’s most famous magazines, including, Playboy, Maxim (United States, Korea, and Philippines versions), FHM (United States and Australian versions), and UFC Magazine. In addition to modeling, Celeste has hosted television shows, including the popular Velocity TV show, Overhaulin’, has appeared in short films, and has recorded original music.
Celeste is in an elite class of Social Media influencers with over 1.8 million Instagram followers, almost a half million Twitter followers and 3.1 million fans on Facebook, combined with her own personal website.
That we know of, Celeste is depicted in the photos in Exhibit X in order to promote Stilleto [sic] Nanuet on its Twitter and Instagram pages. These Images depict Celeste in sexually suggestive outfits, and were intentionally altered to make it appear that Celeste was either a stripper working at Stiletto Nanuet, or endorsed the club. This false appearance is bolstered by the fact that the Image depicts Celeste cooking on a grill, beside the copy: “THIS FRIDAY (and every Friday this summer) Don’t Miss the Stiletto Happy Hour BBQ from 4-7pm. Burgers and dogs on us!”
Celeste has never been employed at any of the Clubs, has never been hired to endorse any of the Clubs, has received no remuneration for Defendants’ unauthorized use of her Image, and has suffered, and will continue to suffer, damages as a result of same.
Someone in the marketing department sure dropped the ball, which will likely cost the New York-based organizations plenty of coin if they fail to correct the issues or come to an out-of-court agreement.
While Celeste has never been shy when it comes to disrobing (evidence here and here), the long-time UFC employee has never been known to be a stripper.
Keep it tuned to MMAmania.com as more details emerge.
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