Legal experts informed Fox News Digital that any lawsuit against Chris Martin of Coldplay over the Kiss Cam controversy would be “dead on arrival.”
After being seen on the jumbotron during a Coldplay show with his arms wrapped around Kristin Cabot, the head of his company’s human resources department, Astronomer CEO Andy Byron resigned from his position. Online rumours are already circulating that the former CEO intends to sue Coldplay for the event. However, no court documents have been filed yet, and experts tell Fox News Digital that Byron has limited legal options.
“Andy Byron has zero grounds to sue, in fact, his lawsuit is dead on arrival,” employment attorney Ron Zambrano explained to Fox News Digital.
“He had no reasonable expectation of privacy at an event like that. There’s a waiver of any such rights at the point of ticket purchase (which itself is a contract /waiver).”
Byron was seen on the Kiss Cam with his arms encircling a woman, subsequently revealed to be Cabot, during Coldplay’s July 16 performance. Martin’s “The Jumbotron Song,” in which the singer improvises lyrics about the couples displayed to the audience, featured the two.
Cabot immediately covered her face and turned away from the camera, while a stunned Byron ducked down and exited the frame. Martin then joked that “either they’re having an affair or they’re just very shy.”
As the video of the conversation went viral, it sparked rumours of adultery on social media.
The tech company released a statement regarding the contentious incident on X on July 18.
“Astronomer is committed to the values and culture that have guided us since our founding. Our leaders are expected to set the standard in both conduct and accountability,” the company shared. “The Board of Directors has initiated a formal investigation into this matter and we will have additional details to share very shortly.”
Astronomer notified its social media followers of Byron’s resignation on July 20. A week after the video of her hugging with Byron became public, Cabot resigned from her position as chief people officer at Astronomer.
“The idea that anyone goes to a concert of that magnitude and doesn’t have the idea that there’s a risk their face may be shown on a screen or a Jumbotron is 100% laughable,” Zambrano stated.
“He should listen to the advice he is probably getting to keep his head down and avoid torpedoing his future job prospects over something like this.”
Byron doesn’t have “a legal leg to stand on” regarding invasion of privacy claims either, trial attorney John W. Day told Fox News Digital.
“He had no expectation of privacy at the Coldplay concert because it was a public event with tens of thousands of other people present,” the lawyer explained. “In public places there may be cameras, especially at a concert, and it’s always possible you may be captured on video or still images.”
According to Day, Byron’s potential claim of defamation would also fail because he would have to prove Chris Martin “knew that he was not having an affair when he made his comment.”
“The bottom line is, if you’re in public, don’t do anything you would not want your family to see on Instagram or other social media outlets,” he stated.
Days later, Martin apparently made light of the viral scene. Before displaying people on the jumbotron, the lead vocalist decided to warn the audience.
“We’d like to say hello to some of you in the crowd,” Martin said in a video posted on X, which sparked both cheers and laughter from the audience.
“How we’re gonna do that is we’re gonna use our cameras and put some of you on the big screen,” said Martin while grinning. “So please, if you haven’t done your makeup, do your makeup now.”
Gwyneth Paltrow, Martin’s ex-wife, also made fun of the Kiss Cam scandal by making Astronomer their “temporary spokesperson.”
“Thank you for your interest in Astronomer,” the Goop founder said in the tongue-in-cheek video ad posted on Astronomer’s social media page on July 15.
She added that she had been hired “on a very temporary basis to speak on behalf of the 300-plus employees at Astronomer.”
Paltrow noted that the company had “gotten a lot of questions in the last few days, and they wanted me to answer the most common ones.”
The video then wipes to someone typing “OMG What the actual f” before the screen cuts it off and returns to Paltrow deadpanning, “Yes, Astronomer is the best place to run Apache Airflow, unifying the experience of running data ML and AI pipelines at scale.”
At the end of the ad, the actress added, “We will now be returning to what we do best — delivering game-changing results for our customers. Thank you for your interest in Astronomer.”
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