Model photographed without makeup sues school for using image in ad

A Manhattan co-ed is suing The New School for $10.4 million, saying the alt-university made her the “face” of its ad campaign without even asking — and, worst of all, when she was not wearing makeup.

Singer, model and actress Christine James Walker claims the makeup-free ad degraded the value of her brand and cost her modeling gigs.

Walker explains that she was sitting in her Italian class in November 2011 when a university photographer came in to shoot the students, according to her Manhattan Supreme Court suit.

“I was in class, just sitting there. I wasn’t prepped” said Walker, who recently appeared on NBC’s “The Black List” as a school principal.

“I didn’t go through the typical stages — hair and makeup and wardrobe,” she told The Post.

“It doesn’t mean that I had to look drop-dead gorgeous, but I needed to know what I looked like to approve that.”

After the impromptu shoot, no one contacted her for permission to use her image, she says, so the­ ­5-foot-8 brunette was shocked when The New School launched a marketing blitz in May 2013 with a photo of Walker in a classroom.

“I was actually informed by hundreds of people — on movie sets and that kind of thing — everybody that knows me was like, ‘Christine you’re on the subway, you’re on a billboard,’ and I had no idea,” she said.

The 27-year-old Brooklynite is the only person shown in the ad, which reads, “You want your bachelor’s degree. You’re busy. We get it.”

It was posted on The New School’s Web site, in subway stations, pamphlets, a graduation billboard and in publications including Metro newspaper, the suit says.

“I had no control over the image,” Walker griped. “All of a sudden, I’m the face of The New School, so I am pretty much down for the count for any other advertisements.”

Walker was never compensated by the school, the suit claims, and is now demanding $125,000 for the use of her image, $250,000 for emotional distress — and $10 million for punitive damages.

“It wasn’t just an incidental photo,” her attorney, Craig Penn told The Post. “She was portrayed almost like a spokesperson.”

After a cease-and-desist letter last July, the college removed the photo from its Web site. A rep for the school declined to comment.