Stepping away from the controversy surrounding her name doesn't seem to be an option for burlesque performer Dita von Teese. Fresh off the scandal involving fetishism and lesbian romps, Dita now takes to the court to settle a dispute over a faulty prop which managed to throw a spanner in the works for her show.

As part of her performance, Dita wanted a 10-foot sculpture of a swan, shooting water out of its beak. She was supposed to dance on the water statue so she commissioned some dude called Fred Knaff to build it for her. Done deal, right? Dita gets her statue/fountain swan thingy, the dude gets paid, men get to see Dita 'perform', everyone comes out winning. Not so fast.

Dita says that she payed thousands of dollars on the statue but on the opening night of her show last November it malfunctioned. She gave it back to Fred Knaff hoping to get it mended or at least get a refund, but she has yet to see the money of the swan back. And there's Dita's problem right there: she can't perform without her 10-foot sculpture and that means no more money coming in for her.

The dude hasn't even returned the swan to Dita so now she's swan-less, pennyless and also feeling cheated. Who would do such a terrible thing to Dita? Anyway, von Teese reconsidered her show which she called 'Swan Lake' after Tchaikovsky's famous ballet but is still suing Knaff for unspecified damages over the sculpture which she says cost $200,000. For those of you who don't know, Dita rose to fame with very racy yet tasteful performances, like the famous one in which she splashes around in a huge Martini glass.