News

Buckcherry Sued Over Lewd Video Featuring Underage Girl

Warner Music Group, Atlantic Records and other parties have been named in a lawsuit claiming that they distributed a explicit music video for the band Buckcherry that featured a 16-year-old girl performing sexual acts. News of the lawsuit first surfaced today (September 11) in a report by the Los Angeles Times.

The suit states that the girl, identified as Jane Doe, responded to an ad on the band's MySpace page seeking extras to audition for a video to the song "Crazy Bitch." When she showed up for the audition last October at a nightclub in Hollywood, she was given alcohol and then filmed exposing her breasts, kissing another girl and dancing on a stripper pole while the band performed. The suit claims that the girl was not asked for identification to prove that she was 18 -- an obvious requirement for anyone appearing in such a video.

The suit further alleges that Jane Doe was used not only in the video for the song, but also in a widely distributed "behind-the-scenes" video, in which she was identified by her first name.

The attorney who filed the suit on Jane Doe's behalf, Douglas Silverstein, says that his client was forced to switch schools because of the humiliation she endured at the hands of classmates who saw the video. "You can imagine the panic this girl felt when this video started getting aired," he said.

Attorneys for Buckcherry dispute the details of the suit, noting that every effort was made to keep minors out of the video shoot and insisting that the plaintiff in the case must have lied about her age in order to be filmed. "There were signs telling minors to stay out," attorney Skip Miller told the LA Times. "This woman filled out a release form with false information." He also noted that the videos featuring the girl were immediately pulled from all major media channels once it was determined she was underage, although versions of the video remain in circulation on the Web.

Buckcherry's manager, Allen Kovac, was unsympathetic when asked about the case. "There was every opportunity for her not to be in that video," he said. "For whatever reason, the girl subverted those efforts, and now her mom is trying to blame everyone but her. This woman is now looking at them as a profit opportunity."

--The ARTISTdirect Staff
09.11.06