NEW YORK - A trial pitting Woody Allen against American Apparel, a clothing company known for risque advertising, was expected to start in New York.

The actor-director alleges that American Apparel used his image without his permission on billboards and is seeking 10 million dollars compensation.

The clothing company, founded by eccentric and controversial Canadian-born entrepreneur Dov Charney, says it did nothing wrong in using the picture, which depicted Allen as a Hasidic Jew.

Both sides slung mud in the build-up to the trial.

Allen argued that American Apparel, famous for using barely clad models in ads for its trendy underwear and T-shirts, was "sleazy."

Lawyers for the company threatened to bring up Allen's colorful personal life, including the "sex scandal" of his marriage to adopted daughter Soon-Yi Previn, saying this showed the actor's reputation was not worth as much as he claimed.

The dispute began two years ago when American Apparel briefly used the Allen picture, in which he wears a thick Hasidic-style beard, on billboards in New York and Los Angeles.

Although Allen is believed to have appeared in advertisements early in his career, he has long avoided making endorsements.

In a deposition last December, Allen said he would not touch American Apparel, or its notorious ads, with a barge pole.

"The ones that I saw were -- were, you know, sexually gross in a witless and infantile way," he said, adding that American Apparel had a "sleazy image."

Allen, whose films are known for neurotic comedy and quick-fire dialogue, said that if he ever did do a commercial, it would have to be for "a large amount of money."