DUBLIN -- I watched two lads dressed in Stetsons standing behind The Clarence. I think they were making a statement about Bono's missing hat--the one he alleges Lola Cashman took after the Joshua Tree tour ended in Arizona years ago. I have Arizona connections and can testify that Stetsons are a dime a dozen. I'll bring a few back to Ireland the next time I swing through the desert southwest.
U2 is suing Lola Cashman, their former stylist, for the recovery of Bono's Stetson, Bono's trousers and around 200 photographs that Cashman snapped while with the group in the 1980s. She won no friends among the lads after she published an unauthorised biography of U2 last year.
Cashman told the Dubin Circuit Civil Court this week that she had asked Bono for the Stetson hat and that he agreed to give it to her. Now she's trying to flog the hat on eBay and Bono wants it back. He takes his hats seriously. In court, he said the hat had an iconic status. "It would be like the Edge giving one of his guitars away. It is not something which will happen."
The allegation is that the Stetson walked away from the wardrobe collection. Or that Bono wasn't lucid when he gave the hat to Cashman while dressed only in his knickers.
The case continues.
David Sharrock -- "Bono Sues to Get His Trousers Back" in The Times News section, June 29, 2005.