Las Vegas Weekly

July 8, 2009 · 12:12 PM

Lindsay Lohan faces lawsuit over Sevin Nyne tanning mist spray

By Robin Leach

Lindsay Lohan celebrates her 23rd birthday at MGM's Wet Republic.

Photo: Scott Harrison/Retna/www.harrisonphotos.com

Actress Lindsay Lohan reportedly partnered with a Las Vegas businesswoman, Lorit Simon, to develop the new Sevin Nyne tanning mist spray. The young star launched it with a debut party at Wet Republic in MGM two weekends ago as part of her early birthday celebrations.

Lindsay, who turned 23 last Thursday, was said by the New York Post to have been paid $70,000 for her Las Vegas promotion of the tanning spray. Now just four days after her birthday, she’s been hit with a lawsuit by a Florida chemist who says the formula was stolen from her!

Jennifer Sunday, a St. Petersburg pharmaceutical analytical chemist, has sued Lorit and Lindsay for “breach of contract, theft of trade secrets, civil conspiracy, deceptive and unfair trade practices and intentional interference with contractual relations.” Jennifer graduated from Eckhard College and was involved in genetic research at the Shriners Hospital in Tampa.

Attorney Marcia Cohen, who filed the lawsuit in Tampa Federal Court this week, says it’s impossible for Lindsay to say she invented it with Lorit over the past three years because her client only recently completed the ingredients used in Sevin Nyne, so named after Lindsay’s lucky numbers.

Photo: Ethan Miller/Getty Images

Lindsay Lohan celebrates her 23rd birthday at MGM's Wet Republic.

Lorit, according to the lawsuit, signed a confidentiality agreement in January with Jennifer’s White Wave International Labs and had negotiated over samples of the tanning mist. That agreement was filed with the lawsuit. “The next thing we know, Lorit Simon and Lindsay Lohan are partnered, and Ms. Lohan is taking credit for developing this formula, which she indeed had no role in,” said the attorney. Lorit is described in the lawsuit as a businesswoman who airbrushes tans for celebrities.

While here in Las Vegas, Lindsay and her PR team promoted the tanning mist ingredients as “all natural.” According to the product releases, it contains goji berry, caramel, Chardonnay extracts and a sugar coconut base. Lindsay said herself that she used it and loved it because it was made from all-natural products, didn’t streak, smelled good and also looked natural.

The attorney summed up: “We are certainly looking for the profits that are being generated right now from that product. If Ms. Lohan and Ms. Simon and their companies and their shareholders are profiting from the theft of my client’s formula and are profiting from that product, my client is entitled to those proceeds.”

Lindsay describes Sevin Nyne as her “sunless secret,” which is for sale nationwide at $35 a bottle and can be purchased here at Sephoria in The Venetian and Miracle Mile.

Robin Leach has been a journalist for more than 50 years and has spent the past decade giving readers the inside scoop on Las Vegas, the world’s premier platinum playground.

Follow Robin Leach on Twitter HERE.

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