A Metairie Louisiana couple is suing Jessica Simpson and OK magazine for using a photograph on its April 2012 cover of Simpson holding their child at a Metairie, La., shopping mall. Parents of the child are contending that the magazine is using the photo “in such a way as to suggest the child was hers, according to a lawsuit the couple has filed,” says this The Times-Picayune story.

According to the story, the couple “. . . asserts an invasion of privacy and emotional distress caused by the celebrity news magazine, which boasts a weekly circulation of 4.5 million and a website that attracts more than 7.3 million views per month. The couple is seeking damages that appear to be no more than $75,000.”

According to the T-P story the couple essentially contends that they were unaware the photo would be used in the magazine. However, I’m failing to understand how this doesn’t come under editorial use, which negates a need for a model release. The couple literally handed the child to Simpson who was photographed by “the person thought to have taken the photo, Kevin Mazur.” Seems like the lawsuit would have actually named the photographer but I haven’t read the suit. And a shopping mall doesn’t seem like the place where anyone would have a “reasonable expectation” of privacy.

And why is Simpson named in the suit? She doesn’t edit the magazine. She doesn’t select photos for the magazine’s cover. If she simply held someone’s baby while a photographer took a photograph, it falls way short of complicity. The suit does name Getty Images and the magazine’s publishing company, American Media Inc.