The Dov Boat: Woody Allen & American Apparel Settle for $5M

David Shankbone/Wikepedia

Los Angeles-based garment manufacturer American Apparel has made an out-of-court settlement with Woody Allen, the Associated Press reports. Allen, the idiosyncratic film maker of Annie Hall, Hannah and Her Sisters, and Vicky Cristina Barcelona, had sued the company, owned by its controversial CEO Dov Charney, for $10 million for using an image from 1977's Annie Hall without permission. The image, in which Allen appears as a Hasidic rebbe attending a Norman Rockwell-like dinner, was used in American Apparel billboards in L.A. and New York.

Jury selection for the lawsuit trial was to begin today, and promised to bring a legal mud wrestling extravanza to its Manhattan courthouse. American Apparel lawyers had announced they would make Allen's allegedly sullied personal reputation -- supported by a string of witnesses to include former companion Mia Farrow and Hustler publisher Larry Flynt -- to dispute Allen's claim that the billboards had cost him income. American Apparel reportedly offered to pay $5 million to settle.