Ex-Model Sues NBC Universal for Using Pin-up in Movie Sex Act

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Former model turned makeup artist Irina Krupnik has filed a $10 million lawsuit in the New York Supreme Court in Manhattan against NBC Universal and Universal Pictures, makers of the film Couples Retreat (2009), over a scene in which her pin-up is used by a character performing a sex act.

Krupnik signed a release allowing the picture of her clad in a bikini to be sold to photo stock companies, and NBC Universal contends it has the right to use the photo.  Couples Retreat, a comedy starring Vince Vaughan, Jason Bateman, Kristen Bell, Jon Favreau, Jean Reno and Kristen Davis, involves four couples vacationing on an island. In the scene that forms the basis of the lawsuit, Favreau's character allegedly masturbates to Krupnik's photo that he finds in a brochure. The film is rated PG-13.

"TUOL" has not reviewed Krupnik's complaint, but suggests that moviegoers who shelled out $10 to see the movie may have grounds for bringing an action for intentional infliction of emotional distress and breach of contract against NBC Universal for advertising a comedy but delivering a product devoid of laughs.