Naomi Campbell and perfume company settle NYC suit
(CBS/AP) Naomi Campbell and perfume company Moodform Mission have settled a dispute that started over a fragrance line.
Dueling lawsuits between the British supermodel and Moodform Mission were closed Thursday, Manhattan court records show. Moodform Mission's lawyer, Daniel R. Bright, said Friday his clients "are happy with the settlement," but he wouldn't disclose details.
The dispute involves Campbell's longtime former modeling agent, Carole White, who joined with a Florida-based cosmetics company to form Moodform Mission in the 1990s.
Moodform Mission said it was unfairly squeezed out of its share of millions of dollars in profits from such scents as Naomi Campbell, Cat Deluxe and Seductive Elixir after working for years to line up a 1998 fragrance deal for Campbell.
The agreement called for regular payments to Moodform Mission once the scents went on the market in 2001, netting Campbell millions of dollars over the years, according to the company's lawsuit. It said Campbell violated the contract by inking a new fragrance-licensing agreement in 2008.
The new deal "was a fraudulent scheme arranged by (Campbell) for the purpose of avoiding her obligation to pay Moodform Mission the money required to be paid to it," said the suit, filed in 2009.
Campbell, meanwhile, said she wasn't given full information before signing her deal with Moodform Mission. She said she didn't know for years that White - her chief agent from 1993 until about 2006 - had a stake in the perfume partnership.
"If White had told me that she was a principal in (Moodform Mission), I would not have blindly trusted her advice to sign the documents that she brought to me," Campbell said in a sworn statement last year. "... White held a position of trust and confidence in my life, and I expected her to act in my best interests (and never to benefit if this would be detrimental to my interests)."
The 41-year-old Campbell became one of the world's highest--paid models after being discovered at age 15.
