The Times Square turf war continues between tightey-whitey-wearing Naked Cowboy Robert Burck and flamboyant former stripper, Naked Cowgirl Sandy Kane.
Showing that even cowgirls get the blues, Kane, a six-year veteran of 42nd Street who filed to trademark her act in July, is sending Burck a cease-and-desist letter to try stopping him from using cowgirl “imposters” in his act.
“He has seven girls out there,” Kane fired off. “He’s getting too greedy . . . He has all these Mexicans, they can’t play guitar, they can’t dance, they have no talent.”
Beefy, attention-loving Burck owns the Naked Cowboy trademark and charges $5,000 per year or $500 per month for others to join his lucrative busking franchise. Astonishingly, he is said to be worth over $2 million, but has not filed a trademark for the cowgirl character.
“He’s too cheap,” whined Kane, who was previously sued by Burck for trademark infringement. The case was dismissed with Burck being forced to authorize Kane to use “Naked Cowgirl” alongside her name.
In 2007, Louisa Holmlund also tried to trademark the cowgirl name but was denied. Kane, who performs in a bikini and a cowboy hat which inevitably come off, says the newcomers and cowgirl knockoffs aren’t up to scratch because they don’t go topless like her.
“I don’t make a quarter unless I take my top off,” she says. “I have these tremendous double D’s, and I do great things with them. I go right, left, right, left, and do it kind of funny. People go, ‘Oh, [bleep].’
“I had a lot of problems at first, but I broke down the barriers for people to be naked.” Well, for that we can be grateful.
Naked Cowboy Enterprises’ Todd Rubenstein tells us the cease-and-desist is “meaningless, she has no right to anything.” Burck says, “I love Sandy. She’s got balls of steel to fight, but you don’t win because you have balls. You have to show legitimacy and that you have legal status.”