Rihannahas been known to make headlines for her record breaking hit singles, endorsement deals with CoverGirl, Armani and Vita Coco to name a few and smoking hot bod, but back in February the Bajan artist’s name was splashed across newspapers, magazines and the blogosphere for all the wrong reasons.

It was bad enough that her controversial video for “S&M” got banned in 11 countries when it debuted, but Rihanna also incurred the wrath of celebrity photographer David LaChapelle for ripping off themes from some of his famous snapshots. LaChapelle claimed that “the music video is directly derived from and substantially similar to the LaChapelle works,” and has copied the “composition, total concept, feel, tone, mood, theme, colors, props, settings, decors, wardrobe and lighting.” The 48-year-old photographer, who got his first job from Andy Warhol, sued Rihanna‘s label, Andy Warhol, for $1 million in damages.

Check out the snapshots below for a side-by-side analysis of screen shots from Rihanna‘s “S&M” video against LaChapelle‘s past work.

Rihanna‘s camp had little room to argue and settled with LaChapelle out of court for a sum that has made the photographer “happy with the settlement.” “I like RiRi,” LaChapelle said back in July. “This is not personal, it’s strictly business. Musicians commonly pay to sample music or use someone’s beats and there should be no difference when sampling an artist’s visuals.”

Watch Rihanna‘s “S&M” video below. Could this be just the push Anne Teresa De Keersmaeker needs to file a similar suit against Beyoncé? Earlier this month the choreographer accused Beyoncéof copying some of her signature moves for her “Countdown” video. Stay tuned.

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