This model just won’t back down.
Louisa Raske recruited a small army of fellow stunners to take on top model agencies in court for co-opting their images after a judge ruled that the 5-foot-9 blonde could only sue agencies she’d worked with.
In September Manhattan Supreme Court Justice O. Petere Sherwood gave Raske a dressing down for bringing a lawsuit against 25 modeling agencies and nine ad companies although she had only been employed by a total of five.
But now she’s joined by seven models who have posed for Sports Illustrated, Maxim, J Crew, L’Oreal and Macy’s in a new class action suit against a half dozen agencies including the international Ford Models Inc.
The suit claims the agencies have recycled snapshots of the men and women and resold them to ad agencies and major cosmetics companies.
But instead of taking their commission and passing along the profits, the agencies have pocked the full checks, according to the suit.
“The modeling agency defendants have interfered with and took unauthorized control over the funds paid for usages to the exclusion of the models’ rights,” the court papers say.
Raske, who’s appeared on the cover of Brides magazine, caught Next Inc. in the act after spotting a photo of herself on a L’Oreal hair color box in a CVS store in Florida after the agency had dropped her for underperformance.
Melissa Baker, the Sports Illustrated model, learned that Click Model Management had been profiting off her looks abroad when the IRS contacted her about unreported funds.
And Alex Shanklin, a male model with a resume that includes Dolce & Gabbana, Canali and Kenneth Cole, was fired by Wilhelmina Models Inc. only to see that the agency was still marketing his mug without compensating him.
“It is against equity and good conscience to permit the modeling agency defendants to retain the funds paid for usage that are owed the model,” the suit concludes.
They are suing for unspecified damages.
The named agencies did not immediately return messages for comment.