Beyoncé’s tour faces legal hurdle

Beyonce has been sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding she drop some of the visuals from her Cowboy Carter tour.

The Texas Hold 'Em hitmaker's production company Parkwood Entertainment was sent the legal warning by James Dolan's Sphere Entertainment Group objecting to footage using their Las Vegas Sphere venue without permission.

A number of fans posted footage online from Beyonce's first concerts in Los Angeles last week, which featured a giant version of the 43-year-old megastar striding through Las Vegas, before picking up a computer-generated version of the distinctive venue and juggling it between her hands, leading to the company taking action.

The letter, which was obtained by the New York Post read: "Beyonce - many orders of magnitude larger than the Sphere venue - leans over, picks up the venue, and looms over it."

Sphere accused Beyonce of "impermissible use and violation" of the company's intellectual property rights, which "has resulted in significant speculation that Beyonce will end her tour with a Sphere residency."

The letter added: "SEG was never asked and the prominent appearance and manipulation of SEG's Sphere venue in the video is unauthorised."

Beyonce - who has never visited the venue - has been given a deadline of today to stop using the imagery in her videos, otherwise the company "reserves all rights to take further action as SEG deems appropriate without notice."