Actress Uma Thurman is counter-suing Lancôme, the French cosmetics giant, for $15m (£7.7m), claiming it used her image in an advertising campaign years after a contract expired. It is the third time in a week Thurman's name has been mentioned in a US court, after a lawsuit by Lancôme on Wednesday and the conviction last week of a stalker, Jack Jordan, for harassing the actress and her family over three years.Thurman, 38, who is best known for her role as a gangster's moll in the 1994 film Pulp Fiction, claims the cosmetics company used her image for years after a contract expired in 2004, allowing billboards in Canada and Asia to carry posters of her face. Papers filed by her lawyer, Bert Fields, in a Mahattan court said the company, which is owned by L'Oréal, gave the "false impression" Thurman was still linked to Lancôme.
Fields said it also failed to tell wholesalers and retailers to stop using the advertisement featuring the star, adding: "Celebrities will now be careful about doing deals with Lancôme. They continued to use her photographs long after the contract was over."
L'Oréal said any use of Thurman's image after the contract had expired was a mistake, not a commercial ploy. A spokeswoman, Jennifer James, added: "The use of Ms Thurman's image after her contract expired, however minor, was neither deliberate nor intentional."
Thurman's action comes two days after Lancôme filed its own suit against her in the state supreme court, saying it did not violate its contract. Lawyers had been seeking to reach an agreement in the dispute.
In a separate criminal trial which concluded last week, Thurman told a court she was "completely freaked out" by Jordan, a former mental patient who was convicted of stalking her.
