In what is surely a preview of much, much more to come as the Wood-man becomes older, crankier, and more obviously lacking in genius, Variety reports that Woody Allen is suing American Apparel for $10 million as a result of their having used an image from Annie Hall without his permission on one of their billboards.

We're no fans of American Apparel or their borderline creepy advertising, and we suspect that a booze-fueled conversation between Woody and AA founder Dov Charney would find that they share a lot of interests that no one else would be particularly interested in hearing about.  What's particularly ludicrous about the suit is how neatly it encapsulates some of Allen's prior, er, indiscretions while seeking monetary damages from a big, successful company which the lawsuit impugns for doing essentially the same thing.

It's ironic enough for the man who made Zelig to sue a company for using an iconic image without permission, and the lawsuit's huffy, snobbish insistence that Woody Allen does not sully his artistic purity with commercial endorsements — in the United States, at least — is pretty entertaining. But for Woody, who is married to a woman thirty-five years his junior (and with whom he is alleged to have been carrying on an affair when she was seventeen) to sneer in disgust at the titillating advertising used by American Apparel is downright asinine, and for the lawsuit to go out of its way to mention AA's "provocative photography" only serves to remind that Allen's affair with his then-adopted daughter was exposed when Mia Farrow discovered the naked pictures he took of the then-20-year-old. We wish Woody lots of luck with the suit and hope that it makes him so much money that he goes away while he still has a tiny shred of credibility left.