Remember that time M.I.A. flipped the bird in front of a national television audience during the 2012 Super Bowl halftime show? Yeah, we kind of forgot about it too. But, you know who didn’t forget? The National Football League. The NFL has spent the last two years trying to pry $1.5 million out of the rapper’s hands for breach of contract and an LOL-worthy claim that it tarnished the goodwill and reputation of the league.
Now, the league has conjured up another seemingly-make believe complaint, this time demanding an additional $15 million in “restitution” because she benefited financially from her performance, and at the expense of the NFL’s precious advertisers:
Now the NFL has added an additional claim, seeking $15.1 million more in “restitution” as the alleged value of public exposure she received by appearing for an approximately two minute segment during Madonna’s performance. The figure is based on what advertisers would have paid for ads during this time.
M.I.A.’s attorney, Howard King, says the claim “lacks any basis in law, fact, or logic”, and highlighted other instances of controversial halftime performances that have avoided scrutiny — such as Prince’s hyper-sexual halftime show in 2007 — while also criticizing the league for more important unresolved issues. His final claim is that NBC is ultimately responsible for not running the halftime show on a five-second delay, which became standard practice following Janet Jackson’s much more memorable “wardrobe malfunction”.
[KSK]
