Beyoncé has removed the depiction of the Sphere from her Cowboy Carter tour visuals following a cease-and-desist issued from the venue’s owner.
According to the New York Post, CEO of Sphere Entertainment James Dolan accused Parkwood Entertainment of using the Sphere’s likeness “without permission” and faulting the singer for misleading her fans.
“Beyoncé — many orders of magnitude larger than the Sphere venue — leans over, picks up the venue, and looms over it [causing] significant speculation that Beyoncé will end her tour with a Sphere residency,” the letter reads. Dolan unsuccessfully tried to lobby for Beyoncé to perform at the Sphere, but instead she’s performing at Las Vegas’ Allegiant Stadium.
The updated interlude, shared on Parkwood’s official Instagram, swapped out the Sphere with the Allegiant Stadium. The video was captioned, “What happens in Vegas starts with a BANG.”
The cease-and-desist read, “It has recently come to SEG’s attention that a Cowboy Carter tour interlude video contains the unauthorized use of SEG’s intellectual property. SEG is sure that multiple aspects of the interlude video, including other brands, clips and music, were duly cleared by the tour with rights permissions from the rights holders whose works were used in the video, as is common practice. SEG, however, was never asked and the prominent appearance and manipulation of SEG’s Sphere™ venue in the video is unauthorized.”
The letter noted that Parkwood “refrain from using this imagery on any merchandise, promotional or marketing materials, or in tour movies, etc. Should you fail to do so, SEG reserves all rights to take further action as SEG deems appropriate without notice to you.”
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