A Marc Jacobs tote bag that some feel rips off L.A. billboard queen Angelyne‘s likeness has disappeared from the fashion label’s website.
While the City Tote Bag collection still features bags themed for major destinations like Las Vegas, Paris, London, Miami and New York City, the controversial La La Land entry is nowhere to be found.
The bag drew complaints online for its depiction of a reclining bombshell over the Hollywood sign — an image that evoked similar poses used by Angelyne in the billboards that made her famous around L.A. starting in the 1980s.
As reported by Page Six, Angelyne reposted comments lambasting the bags for using her image without compensation. One angry fan likened the move to “thievery.”
The famous-for-being-famous local icon can be found driving her trademark pink Corvette around town, occasionally pulling over to sell Angelyne-branded merchandise to fans.
She was the subject of a series of widely read Hollywood Reporter profiles that were later adapted into a Peacock bio-series starring Emmy Rossum.
Angelyne denounced the reporting, which unraveled the secrets of her past, as well as the TV series, saying, “It doesn’t do me justice. Would you be flattered if someone played you and misrepresented you?”
Neither Angelyne nor representatives for Marc Jacobs responded to requests for comment.
The Marc Jacobs City Tote L.A. Bag
Courtesy of Marc Jacobs
Angelyne has a litigious history involving her larger-than-life persona. She filed a federal copyright lawsuit in 2010 against the makers of the 2009 Christopher “Biggie Smalls” Wallace biopic Notorious, alleging that defendants including Fox Searchlight Pictures and Bad Boy Films used footage of one of her signature billboards without her permission.
In her complaint, she asserted that her image was reproduced in the movie without authorization and sought at least $100,000 in damages, saying the unauthorized use harmed her reputation and infringed her copyright.
She dropped the case after a judge denied her request for an injunction, ruling that the use was fleeting and protected by the First Amendment as part of a historical depiction of Los Angeles culture.
She brought a legal action against the City of Los Angeles in 2009 over the city’s failure to deliver fan mail as agreed, a case that highlighted her efforts to protect her business interests tied to her image and mail-order sales. The case was dismissed.