Katherine Heigl sues drugstore chain for $6 million over a tweet

Katherine Heigl is suing New York drugstore chain Duane Reade to the tune of $6 million -- all over a tweet she claims misappropriated her image for commercial purposes without her consent.

Last month, the company tweeted out a link to a story with a paparazzi photo of the actress carrying two bags branded with its logo. “Love a quick #DuaneReade run? Even @KatieHeigl can’t resist shopping #NYC’s favorite drugstore,” read the message.

The image was also posted on the pharmacy’s Facebook page, according to CNN. The allegedly offending tweet is gone from the @DuaneReade timeline, but it did get retweeted.

To back up her case for monetary damages, the “Grey’s Anatomy” and “27 Dresses” star listed her onscreen accomplishments in the filing and, in what TMZ noted was a bit of overkill in the “look at how famous I am” department, included her number of Twitter followers and, hilariously, the number of hits that result from Googling “Katherine Heigl.”

The case also reportedly says that if Heigl were to win, she’d donate the money to the Jason Debus Heigl Foundation, which helps animals and was founded in 2008 in memory of the actress’ brother, who died after a car accident.

Now, did Heigl try to settle out of court first? A source tells Us Weekly yes, the actress’ attorneys reached out to the drugstore chain.

“They called and asked for it to be taken down, and Duane Reade ignored them,” the source told the magazine. “She tried repeatedly to have this settled without a lawsuit.”

At least the Duane Reade tweet wasn’t as inappropriate as what Valentino did related to a paparazzi shot of Amy Adams back in February. The design house apparently didn’t realize the picture was taken as she attended Philip Seymour Hoffman’s funeral in February and sent out a peppy email promoting the handbag she was carrying for the occasion.

Um, poor taste? In that case, the company promptly apologized.

“It was an innocent mistake and we apologise to Ms. Adams who was not aware, or a part of, our PR efforts,” Valentino said in a statement.

Never know what’s going to happen with a picture once it hits the Internet ...

Incidentally, Duane Reade was just a finalist for a Shorty Award -- like the Oscars, but for social media -- in the category “Best Use of Social Media for Retail or E-Commerce.” The awards were handed out Monday and, tragically for purposes of this article, the drugstore chain lost out to DollarShaveClub.com.

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