Nicole Kidman won an apology and substantial libel damages from a British newspaper on Friday over an article that falsely alleged the face of Chanel No 5 perfume had promoted a rival brand.
— She plans to donate the funds to UNIFEM, the United Nations Development Fund for Women; read more at Yahoo. If you missed the original story, see here and here.
The British courts do take their libel seriously. Great that she's donating the money awarded from the suit, but it seems absolutely ridiculous to think someone could be “defamed” or suffer “damages” by it being implied that she doesn't wear No. 5 27/7, even if she's their spokeswoman. It may have been a lie, but if it weren't, would it hurt anybody if she were to enjoy both Chanel AND Jo Malone? I wonder if a suit would have been filed if it had been reported that Kidman prefers No. 22 (oh, I'm JUST MAKING THAT UP, by the way).
It reminds me of when singer Jessica Simpson was the face of Proactiv, and when she was asked about what she used for skincare and she let it slip that she used La Mer (or Creme De La Mer, can't remember exactly). She got in HUGE trouble for that, and with good reason.
What I'm trying to say is this…
I imagine that the endorsement deals that are made with celebrities are probably nice, but I think that some of these celebrities should give a little more thought towards the product they endorse before finalizing the deal. Why go through the trouble of letting things slip later and getting in trouble? And I agree with NowSmellThis that if this celebrity is getting paid a hefty amount to endorse the product, they might as well endorse it until the contract is up.
(I hope I made sense, LOL)
You made sense! Funny story about JS. Sounds like in the case of NK, somebody just made up the story about Jo Malone White Jasmine & Mint.
*Whew* Good! Sometimes when I write, I think I have trouble getting the point across at times… =0]
I wouldn't be surprised though if someone did make the story up (perhaps for publicity).
Although I'm not entirely surprised by the Jessica/Proactiv incident. =0]
The free promotional publicity for Jo Malone has been nothing short of astounding…
No doubt!