Please stay tuned and bear with us while we are building our new website - FOR YOU! WE HAVE LOTS of exciting new features to maximize your MUSTANG EXPERIENCE. It is going to be great and the possibilities are endless. It should be within a few days so please keep checking back!
Natasha
Site Mademoiselle
Send comments, questions and STORIES to Madam@mustangmadam.com
Fighting Over Eleanor
The director of the movie “Gone in 60 Seconds” which made the1973 Ford Mustang Mach 1 famous with the code name “Eleanor” probably never guessed his widow would actually have the soulessness to sue Carroll Shelby. I seriously doubt if a brilliant director such as Toby Halicki - who also starred in the original movie – would be suing Carroll Shelby – on any stretch of the imagination, but the chic he married is.
The gal he married ( Denice Shakarian Halicki, she used to model) has decided that she might be losing money due to a copyright infringement which probably took brilliant mind many sleepless nights to dream up.
This is because in 1995 she made a deal with Walt Disney pictures for the remake of “Gone in 60 Seconds” - except instead of using the 1973 Mach 1 this time they used a silver 1967 Shelby GT 500. The movie grossed $237 million worldwide.
To make a long story short, Carroll Shelby is an entrepreneur and has been and is involved in a lot of different licensing deals. For a while he was involved with a company that had some screwballs running it , a company called “Unique Performance” a vehicle customizer based in Dallas, Texas. Unique Performance began re-creating 1960s-style Shelby Mustangs using the bodies of old “donor” Mustangs and charging $119,000 to $214,000 per car. I say screwballs because they didn’t make good on all their car orders, people got mad and the company then filed for bankruptcy. Carroll Shelby terminated his licensing agreement a year ago.
However, one of the cars marketed by “Unique Performance” was a replica Shelby GT500 based on the car from the “Gone in 60 Seconds” sequel. So this dingbat – Denice Halicki – decided she’d go after our man – Carroll Shelby – suing him – claiming the replicas violated her exclusive rights to the Eleanor Mustang.
Her case was thrown out by the judge for three reasons:
1) Disney owns the rights to the car used in the Gone in 60 Seconds sequel, and
2) Carroll Shelby has owned the trademark to use the Eleanor name on cars while Halicki didn’t apply for a trademark on the name until several months AFTER filing suit, and
3) The Shelby Mustang in the sequel differed substantially from the yellow fastback in the original film.
Halicki has filed another lawsuit against Unique Performance and Carroll Shelby separately stating that because Unique Performance was criminal it had caused “Eleanor” to be associated in the public mind “with potential criminals”.
Halicki is seeking damages for this and is trying to revoke Shelby’s Eleanor trademark.
Right.
Leave Carroll alone, go back to modeling or start a reality TV series.
Well, if you’re ever in the mood for some biased journalism, you know what address to type:
Send comments, questions and suggestions to
madam@mustangmadam.com
WORLD, MEET DIABLO - THE HORSE WITH THE SENSE OF HUMOR
Every organization ( especially one called “MustangMadam.Com!) needs an animal mascot and we have one. He is a young black horse being tamed and trained by Mustang Madam herself - “me”. His full name is “Diablo Dulce” which means “Sweet Devil”.
Diablo will be 3 years old in April, which makes him an Aries ( Fire Sign) not that Im big on astrology - but - ummm nothing could be more true. He is VERY outgoing and energetic. I met him 1 year ago - it was love at first site thing for both of us. He hadn’t bonded with a human owner prior to me, and when I entered his corral he would not let me leave. I had to save up money for a while to buy him and I went to visit him every weekend while we were waiting. He was an hour away up in the hills of Moorpark, California. Every weekend was the same. He would almost become aggressive when I would start to leave. CUTE. To this day he answers me when I call him and will do almost anything I ask. He is however very tricky and a little firey so he’s not always that easy to handle. Sometimes a little too playful and still learning that I am fragile compared to other “horse” playmates.
Now, he lives a few blocks from me and I see him daily. He is notorious at the barn for getting out of his stall. He has three locks on it now and I have videotaped him opening his stall door right in front of me. When he gets out he doesn’t go far he just visits all the other horses and eats their snacks. He does these things just to keep us on our toes.
Right now I am taming, training and saddlbreaking him, so far pretty much by myself. I had offers from cowboys to “break” him, but I didn’t want him “broken”. So I knew I would have to train him myself, with a “madam’s” touch. It is going nicely. Tonight I got on him for the 5th time, alone - he did very well.
Stay tuned for more adventures with Diablo - the Gorgeous Black Horse with a sense of humor, ( whom most people call “Baby D” because he is sweet and still a growing baby although he weighs 950 lbs.) He LOVES PEOPLE MORE THAN ANYTHING and we will certainly be using him at MustangMadam.com events. Here is his picture. LEAVE A COMMENT FOR DIABLO. I WILL PASS ON ALL YOUR COMMENTS.
He loves to roll
Here he is munching on the helmut I was wearing on the first day I got on his back. Which was the first day he had ever had anyone on his back. He had never seen me in a helmut and he couldn’t figure it out….
Here I am with some cowgirls at my barn
After he has more training we will be doing community events and parades with him, as well as going on picnics and running through the hills of sunny California.
Stay tuned for adventures of this gorgeous black baby!
Natasha
Site Mademoiselle
Send questions, comments and stories to:
Madam@mustangmadam.com
