( CNN ) -- Woody Allen 's lawsuit against American Apparel for unauthorized use of his image on billboards ended Monday with a $ 5 million settlement to be paid to the actor-director by the clothing company . Woody Allen received $ 5 million to settle a suit with American Apparel . Allen said the case should discourage advertisers from using celebrities ' images without permission , but American Apparel 's head said he still thinks his company had a good defense . The settlement , announced just moments before jury selection was to begin in New York , interrupted a trial that lawyers had hinted could include a parade of witnesses testifying about Allen 's sex scandals . `` Threats and press leaks by American Apparel designed to smear me did not work , and a scheme to call a long list of witnesses who had nothing to do with the case was disallowed by the court , '' Allen said . `` I hope this very large settlement will discourage American Apparel and others from doing this type of thing to myself or others in the future . '' Dov Charney , founder and CEO of American Apparel , issued a statement published by London 's Guardian newspaper saying lawyers for his insurance company -- which will pay the money to Allen -- made the decision to settle the case . `` For the record , I personally think we had a good case , '' Charney said . Allen filed his suit , asking for $ 10 million , against American Apparel in March 2008 after the company placed several billboards and online ads using an image of Allen dressed as a Hasidic Jew in his 1977 movie `` Annie Hall . '' `` I sued American Apparel because they calculatingly took my name , my likeness and image and used them publicly to promote their business , '' Allen said Monday . `` Testimony revealed that American Apparel believed that fear of publicity would keep me from ever taking action , and so they put my face on billboards , on the Internet , and my image on their building , '' he said . Charney , who said he finally could talk about the case , said the ad was a `` an attempt to at least make a joke about '' sexual harassment lawsuits filed against him and his company in recent years . `` Today , two years later , all the claims in the lawsuits have been completely disproven and yet at the time , some writers characterized me as a rapist and abuser of women , others asserted that I was a bad Jew , and some even stated that I was not fit to run my company . '' Charney said it was `` ironic that I have to explain this to Woody Allen when he has expressed similar frustrations in the past . '' American Apparel lawyers wanted to call as witnesses Allen 's former companion Mia Farrow and Soon-Yi Previn , Farrow 's adopted daughter and Allen 's wife . Allen 's relationship with -- and eventual marriage to -- Previn was scandal material for tabloids beginning in 1992 , when she was 21 . Allen said the company 's lawyers may have been persuaded to settle because the judge made it `` clear that the court considered their phony First Amendment ranting and claims of parody , sheer nonsense . ''
Woody Allen 's image was used by American Apparel without his authorization . Comment: The company is owned and run by a man named Dov Charney, who has been accused of sexual harassment in the past. American Apparel had used image of Allen from `` Annie Hall '' to promote products .