The court fight between Lady Gaga and her disgruntled ex-secretary has claimed an innocent victim — a celebrity photographer who’s about to get a huge financial slap across his “Poker Face.”
Star shutterbug Terry Richardson lost his bid yesterday to prevent 142,000 behind-the-scenes pictures of Gaga’s 2011 Monster Ball Tour from being entered as evidence in the back-wages lawsuit brought by the diva’s ex-employee, Jennifer O’Neill.
O’Neill believes the photo collection will include many pics showing her at Gaga’s “beck and call” during the 2009-to-2011 tour — thus bolstering her claim that the singer owes her 7,168 hours of overtime and about $400,000 in damages.
Richardson, however, fears that entering the snaps into evidence will allow anyone to reproduce them without having to pay up, costing him hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost royalties.
“Mr. Richardson’s business and livelihood depend on the value of his photographs,” argued Richardson’s lawyer, Steven Hurd, who said the photographer will suffer “immeasurable financial loss” if the pictures are unsealed.
Manhattan federal Judge Paul Gardephe, however, denied the photographer’s claims yesterday, ordering the images to be unsealed.
O’Neill’s lawyer, Virginia Kristina Trunkes, declined comment yesterday. But during a July 26 conference, the assistant’s lawyers said they were concerned that filing the photos under seal could prevent their use at trial.
Hurd did not return messages seeking comment yesterday.
In November 2011, Richardson released about 350 of the pics in a photo book called “Lady Gaga X Terry Richardson.”
Neither Hurd nor Richardson has put an official value on the 142,000 photos, but Richardson makes such big bucks selling his photos that he reportedly earned $58 million between June 2012 and June 2013.