Daisy Phillipson
In a bit of news none of us had on our 2022 bingo cards, a judge has refused to dismiss 50 Cent's penis enlargement lawsuit.
Let's first give you a bit of background. In September, it emerged that the 'Candy Shop' rapper, real name Curtis James Jackson III, was suing a Miami doctor.
He claims that the medical professional, Angela Kogan, used images of him to wrongly imply he’d had penile enhancement surgery.
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After he 'graciously agreed’ to take a photo with her, the lawsuit documents allege that Kogan 'subsequently used it to promote her business', Perfection Plastic Surgery and MedSpa, 'without Jackson's consent'.
After sharing it on the company's social media, the image popped up again – this time in an article on The Shade Room, which featured Kogan discussing the rise in plastic surgery amongst men, particularly in relation to penis enlargement procedures.
The rapper’s team say things took a ‘disturbing turn’ when the image of 50 Cent – which is 40p to our UK readers – was used as part of a thumbnail image that appears when the article is shared online.
"Neither defendants nor TSR sought Jackson’s permission to use the photo, let alone in this particular manner," they wrote.
"Even if defendants had asked for permission, Jackson never would have consented to Kogan or MedSpa’s commercial use of the photo, especially not in this context.
"Not only were Jackson’s image and name linked to a sexual enhancement treatment he never had, but Kogan also falsely implied to the TSR reporter that Jackson was her client for plastic surgery more generally."
Since then, the doctor has spoken out to deny the claims, with her attorneys arguing that her use of the photo 'was made solely for entertainment purposes'.
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They went on to allege that 50 had accompanied his girlfriend, who was visiting the clinic to receive 'free MedSpa services' in exchange for promoting the business, claiming that the rapper agreed to do the same.
Despite the response from Kogan's lawyers, Judge Robert N Scola Jr, who is overseeing the case, denied their motion and ruled that 50's claim is strong enough to proceed to the earliest stage.
In the ruling made on Monday (December 12), Scola wrote: "As the proverbial saying goes, a picture is worth a thousand words.
"This one in particular depicts a worldwide celebrity next to Kogan with MedSpa’s name repeated all throughout the background. The promotional value is evident."
He went on to highlight how Kogan had failed to mention another use of the photo after she posted a screen capture video of her scrolling through The Shade Room’s piece.
The judge went on: "They weakly argue that Jackson consented to the photo’s being uploaded on to Instagram while making no mention of Jackson’s consent/non-consent as to the screen capture video and the promotional value it doubtlessly served.
"That omission is fatal.
"Because the defendants took it upon themselves to post the video onto their Instagram accounts, Jackson can plausibly argue that the defendants unauthorisedly used his likeness to promote their business regardless of whether the defendants had any role in TSR’s publication of either the tweet or the article.
"The promotional value that the defendants have received from repeatedly sharing Kogan’s photo with Jackson is surely great."
In short, 50 Cent has been given the green light to continue proceedings – whether it will go to trial is yet to be seen.