Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders Brand Owner Sues My Chemical Romance Over Hollywood Bowl Staging

My Chemical Romance’s return to the Hollywood Bowl has produced a legal filing rather than a review cycle. Pro Silver Star Ltd., which owns the Dallas Cowboys Cheerleaders brand, has requested a temporary restraining order and temporary injunction against the band, accusing it of degrading the trademark during the first of five sold-out Black Parade shows at the venue.

The sequence in question came during “Teenagers.” Dancers dressed in outfits resembling the cheerleaders’ uniforms took the stage, performed choreography, then picked up rifles to defend the band from a militarized force. In its filing, first reported by TheWrap, Pro Silver Star describes the production as a theatrical concert set in a fictional dictatorship, featuring pyrotechnics and armed conflict, in which female performers wore the DCC Uniform and were later depicted being shot.

The company’s argument is narrow by design. It states that it takes no issue with the band’s music, its artistic ambitions, its politics, its setlist or even the presence of armed performers onstage. It asks only that those performers not wear the cheerleaders’ uniform while doing it, noting that the filing claims audience members and online commentators mistook the dancers for the real organization. Beyond injunctive relief, Pro Silver Star is seeking unspecified monetary damages.

The dispute sits at an awkward intersection: a rock band whose current production depends on the visual language of American spectacle, and a brand that polices its image closely enough to litigate over a costume. Whether a fictional dictatorship can borrow a real uniform is now a question for a court rather than a stage director.