Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia snapped up all the rights to Emeril Lagasse products back in 2008 for just $50 million. Now that branded merchandise may cost her another $24 million in legal fees.

MSLO was selling Lagasse’s knives for Wusthof that bore his signature logo and the inscription “Solingen, Germany” on HSN, formerly known as the Home Shopping Network, and its website. That mark labels them as having been made in the so-called “City of Blades,” a region of the country known for its excellent cutlery. TMZ hears that the knives were actually knockoffs from China.

Enter the legal team of the German Chamber of Industry and Commerce Wuppertal-Solingen-Remscheid, a trade association, which has filed suit against Stewart, Lagasse, and HSN and is seeking $24 million in damages, Law.com reports. Actually, Forbes adds that the association would like to receive $2 million for each and every time the knives were mentioned on HSN. Continue reading...

JCPenney introduces Emeril Lagasse as its latest celebrity ambassador in a new TV commercial, above. The Bam-tastic chef is putting his name on his first line of cookware, which will be sold exclusively at JCP, which re-re-rebranded in January and produced a series of commercials featuring Ellen DeGeneres for the Academy Awards broadcast in February.

JCPenney introduces Emeril Lagasses as its latest celebrity ambassador in a new TV commercial, above. The Bam-tastic chef is putting his name on his first line of cookware, which will be sold exclusively at JCP, which re-re-rebranded in January and produced a series of commercials featuring Ellen DeGeneres for the Academy Awards broadcast in February.

Among the most-shared videos on YouTube this week — a cooking demo by celebrity chef Emeril Lagasse's attorney, Mark Stein, for Philadelphia Cooking Creme. Looks like Kraft's "huge marketing campaign" to support the Philly Creme Cheese spin-off's launch has paid off.

After the jump: some deliberately slow-loading viral videos, and the trending Megan Fox for Armani spot.Continue reading...

Everyone knows celebrity brand licensing for perfumes is a huge business, especially during the holiday gift-giving season. Even dead celebrities are serious earners when it comes to licensed perfumes.

But what about those looking to give a celebrity-branded gift to a friend whose olfactory senses reject perfumes? How about coffee? We're not talking about collaborations, such as the band Wilco's teaming with coffee brand Intelligentsia. Or the myriad celebs spotted daily with a Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf Extreme Ice Blended to go.

We're talking name-brand coffee. A recent LA Weekly piece pointing out the new Rob Zombie-branded coffee prompted us to put together a list of celebrity bagged beans for the caffeine-head.Continue reading...