Although Rihanna has crooned "it feels so good being bad," it looks like she got a small taste of punishment for her 'S&M' music video this week, and not the fun kind.
While some may have avoided Rihanna's racy music video for its use of chains, whips and latex, famed fashion photographer David LaChapelle had a bigger problem. He claimed Ri copied eight of his magazine photographs, angrily tweeting "The next time you make a David LaChapelle music video you should probably hire David LaChapelle." The tweet was soon taken down. When the scandal first appeared, blogger Perez Hilton made an assemblage comparing LaChapelle's works to the video in question. The results are pretty convincing, from costumes to colors to poses; Rihanna's work seemed clearly to have at least been inspired by the photographer's work. LaChapelle filed a lawsuit against Rihanna and Def Jam Records for $1 million.
Since the video's release in January, situation has cooled off. "I like RiRi," LaChapelle, who shot Rihanna in 2007, said. "This is not personal, it's strictly business."
The court ruled in favor of LaChapelle, agreeing that Rihanna's 'pink room scene' was too similar to LaChapelle's 'Striped Face' photograph. Rihanna confirmed that she settled the case, but did not disclose the amount of the settlement. LaChapelle is, according to his publicist, "happy with the settlement.” He explained in July: "Musicians commonly pay to sample music or use someone's beats, and there should be no difference when 'sampling' artist's visuals."
Watch Rihanna's sexy 'S&M' video below: