Music News
U2 proceedings against former stylist conclude
Wednesday 29 June 2005
The former stylist for the band has claimed that U2 only proceeded with legal action for the return of the items of memorabilia after she threatened to sue them for defamation.
U2 are seeking to recover a number of souvenir items that their former stylist tried to auction in 2002, including a stetson and a pair of trousers worn by Bono.
Ms Cashman, who worked as a stylist for the band in the 1980s, claims that the items were given to her as gifts - a claim which was denied by U2 frontman Bono in court yesterday.
The former stylist told the court that she was frightened and intimidated by the initial letters that she received from the band's solicitors, after she decided to auction the souvenirs.
Ms Cashman claims that she didn't tell anyone about being given the items as gifts, or write about it in her book about U2, because she was not in awe of the band and did not think it was important.
When asked, under cross-examination, about a confidentiality clause that she signed with the band after her employment, Ms Cashman said that it related to five years after the termination of her employment, claiming that it was not a vow of silence for life.
In his evidence yesterday, Bono said: "You may have wealth and power, but when someone is trying to push us around and blackmail us and threaten us with books, at a certain point you have to say 'Stop right there'."
Judge Matt Deery will deliver his verdict in the case next Tuesday.
Click here for Terms of use
Top 10 Most Read
Must Watch TV
-
- The Real Mr & Mrs Assad: Channel 4 Dispatches
Channel 4 Dispatches reveals a portrait of a golden couple who have become global hate figures. The programme shows intimate footage of President Bashar al-Assad and his wife Asma as they've never been seen on British television before, and images that help explain why the West bought the idea they were true modernisers. When Bashar took the reins of power after his father's death in 2000, the West was drawn into a hope and belief that Syria would be a new force for change in the Middle East. The Assads were seen as a glamorous couple with modern Western morals and values; he was hailed a reformer, she was the 'Rose of the Desert'. Key leaders and figures in the West welcomed the young couple, convinced that the softly spoken London-trained ophthalmologist and his beautiful British-born former investment banker wife would bring reform and modernisation to a country that had been run by an iron-fisted dictator for nearly 30 years. But it seems the West was duped. Instead of a transparent and progressive leadership, what has emerged during a year-long bloody uprising is evidence of the regime's gross systematic human rights abuses, including widespread killings and torture, while the Assads look on. Channel 4 Dispatches investigates the extent of the Assad family's culpability and the chains of command that link the President and select inner circle to the brutal crackdown.
-
- Afghanistan: The Great Game - A Personal View By Rory Stewart
Afghanistan: one of the most isolated and barren landscapes on earth is a strange place for an empire or superpower to invade. But for three of the greatest powers the world has seen, it became an unlikely target and an enduring obsession. The 19th century British invasions into Afghanistan, immortalised by Rudyard Kipling as "The Great Game", ended in huge loss of life and British retreat, and set a template for the perils of incursion in this mountainous country. In this two-part series, author, journalist and former Deputy Governor during the coalition's occupation of Iraq, Rory Stewart MP travels to Afghanistan to uncover the fears, the paranoia and perceived threats that led three very different Ssperpowers: Britain, Russia and the United States into Afghanistan from the 19th century to the present day.
-
- 56 Up
Michael Apted's landmark documentary series following the lives of ordinary British people from childhoiod to adulthood and old age continues. Over the past six decades, the series has documented the group as they have become adults and entered middle-age, dealing with everything life has thrown at them in between. The series is back to discover what has happened to the group over the last seven years. And one of the original characters has decided to re-join the series after leaving almost 30 years ago.