A lawsuit says Taylor Swift’s “The Life of a Showgirl” stole the spotlight from the life of a real one.
Maren Wade says in the trademark infringement lawsuit filed Monday in federal court in California that the glittery branding of Swift’s 2025 album comes too close to the aesthetic of her own “Confessions of a Showgirl.” That was the name of a column she wrote on backstage Sin City life in the Las Vegas Weekly starting in 2014, which she turned into a live show that she took on a national tour.
“Both share the same structure, the same dominant phrase, and the same overall commercial impression,” the lawsuit says. “Both are used in overlapping markets and are directed at the same consumers.”
Wade is described as a “singer, songwriter, comedian, and writer” in the lawsuit filed under her legal name, Maren Flagg, and her “Showgirl” brand encompasses performances, writing and digital media.
“The Life of a Showgirl,” the stadium-packing superstar’s 12th studio album, released in October, sold 4 million copies in its first week. Its cover features her in Las Vegas cabaret garb, submerged in water with her current favorite color scheme of orange and mint green. On Tuesday, the morning after the lawsuit was filed, Swift dropped the newest video for the album for the album’s track “Elizabeth Taylor,” featuring archival footage of the Hollywood luminary who died in 2011.
Wade appeared to embrace Swift’s use of the showgirl image initially, sharing Instagram posts that used Swift’s music, hashtags related to the album, and the mint green colour scheme. But Wade’s social media presence has gone silent in recent months.
Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the company that manages Swift’s trademarks, her record label and its merchandising arm.
The lawsuit says the album, its promotion and the products surrounding it caused “textbook reverse confusion: a junior user’s overwhelming commercial presence drowns out the senior user’s mark, until consumers begin to assume that the original is the imitation. What Plaintiff had built over twelve years, Defendants threatened to swallow in weeks.”
