Onassis v. Christian Dior — New York, Inc.

OPINION OF THE COURT

Edward J. Greenfield, J.

This case poses for judicial resolution the question of whether the use for commercial purposes of a “lookalike” of a well-known personality violates the right of privacy legislatively granted by enactment of sections 50 and 51 of the Civil Rights Law. Put another way, can one person enjoin the use of someone else’s face? The questions appear not to have been definitively answered before.

Plaintiff, Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis, former First Lady of the United States, widow of President John F. Kennedy, one of the world’s most «powerful men, and of…