Times Square, New York - (Starkers Mess): New York's Naked Cowboy is suing a parody of himself created by men from Mars Inc.
Thirty seven year old Robert Burck has strutted his naked stuff in Times Square for over a decade, becoming a public landmark much like the Statue of Liberty.
The iconic torch 'n' twang one-man stand-up routine has been much copied in cabaret clubs around the world such as London's famous Madame Jo-Jos.
Then suddenly a Big Corp has begun plagiarising him in a Times Square megabux video billboard, brainchild of a sharp-suited M&M marketing exec.
A blue-colored M&M sweet dressed in Burck's signature outfit went up above the streets of his professional stomping ground, mimicking his trademark performance in nothing more than a copy-cat cowboy hat, boots, skimpy Y-fronts and a strategically placed guitar.
Blue candy man ripping off his pro act?
Burck saw red.
Now he's filed a $10 million lawsuit for breach of coyright, loss of earnings and damage to professional reputation.
"It's so downmarket of Mars anyway," his spokesman said today.
"Most people of Mr Burck's age associate Mars Inc with Mars bars and that tacky moment in 1970-something when Rolling Stone Mick Jagger was caught in flagrente delicto during a London cops' drugs bust pleasuring his girlfriend, singer Marianne Faithfull, who was enjoying a Mars Bar in the least expected orifice," his spokesman added.
No doubt the judge will have to consider that extra point when New York's singing cowboy sues the pants off the Mars Corporation.
