Naked Cowgirl Can Keep Her Name, Free of Charge
Sandra Brodsky can stay naked.
Brodsky — better known as ex-stripper Sandy Kane — has won the right to continue calling herself The Naked Cowgirl after a failed lawsuit by Robert Burck, better known as the guitar-toting Naked Cowboy.
The battle of the Clotheless Cowpeople was bared yesterday by Metro, which obtained terms of a February settlement between the pair, both of whom ply their trade in Times Square.
In February, Kane won a legal battle “to keep her skivvies, pasties and guitar strapped on in Times Square, without giving Burck a dime,” Metro reported. According to the settlement agreement, “Kane, an aging ex-stripper, can use the name ‘Naked Cowgirl’ alongside her name without dishing out cash. Last year, Burck demanded $5,000 and subsequent loyalty payments from Kane to use the ‘Naked’ name, Kane’s lawyer, Nick Barnhorst, told Metro.”
Burck’s Manhattan federal court suit had also “accused his foul-mouthed counterpart of damaging his brand with a raunchy act that included making ‘obscene gestures’ while being photographed by tourists at the Crossroads of the World,” the New York Post reported.
Kane — who gained notoriety as a stripper by “lighting her breasts on fire” to close her act, according to the Village Voice — also built a substantial cult with the decade-long run of her “Blew Comedy Hour” public-access TV show . A performer’s bio posted by the Donau Festival, a yearly pop-culture extravaganza in Krems, Austria, raves that “Whether innocent teen hits from the 60s or uptempo Italo dance floor fillers from the grand era of disco — the hardcore interpretations of this Jewish-American DIY artist rank among the most outrageous sex & grime fantasies anyone could find online.” The festival, incidentally, was curated by another boundary-pushing Jewish female, the Berlin-based, Toronto-born electro performer Peaches, aka Merrill Nisker.
Why I became the Forward’s editor-in-chief
You are surely a friend of the Forward if you’re reading this. And so it’s with excitement and awe — of all that the Forward is, was, and will be — that I introduce myself to you as the Forward’s newest editor-in-chief.
And what a time to step into the leadership of this storied Jewish institution! For 129 years, the Forward has shaped and told the American Jewish story. I’m stepping in at an intense time for Jews the world over. We urgently need the Forward’s courageous, unflinching journalism — not only as a source of reliable information, but to provide inspiration, healing and hope.
, editor-in-chiefSupport our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
