Beyoncé has been slapped with a cease-and-desist letter over video footage that appears during her new Cowboy Carter tour.
Beyoncé has come under fire over tour footage which shows her as a giant, towering figure striding over the Las Vegas skyline before picking up and playing with the Sphere concert venue.
Lawyer Kathleen McCarthy, representing Sphere Entertainment Group (SEG), has accused Beyoncé’s production company Parkwood Entertainment of featuring and manipulating images of the Sphere without permission.
“Beyoncé – many orders of magnitude larger than the Sphere venue – leans over, picks up the venue, and looms over it,” McCarthy wrote in the cease-and-desist letter, according to the New York Post. “SEG was never asked and the prominent appearance and manipulation of SEG’s Sphere venue in the video is unauthorized.”
McCarthy accused them of “impermissible use and violation” of the company’s intellectual property rights and claimed that that video has caused “significant speculation” that the tour will end with a residency at the venue.
The lawyer has demanded that Parkwood “cease and desist from using the Sphere venue in the video immediately – in addition to refraining from using this imagery on any merchandise, promotional or marketing materials, or in tour movies”.
If they fail to comply with the demand, SEG’s legal team will consider taking further action.
Beyoncé kicked off her Cowboy Carter tour at the SoFi Stadium in Inglewood, California on Monday. The trek, in support of her country album of the same name, will stop in several U.S. cities as well as London and Paris before concluding in July.
Last year, it was reported that the Texas Hold ‘Em hitmaker was in talks for a residency at the Sphere – which opened in 2023 – but the negotiations ultimately fell through.
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