Legal Question in Intellectual Property in California

It sounds right, and you have no legal basis for fighting it. Actresses have a legal right to exploit their images for profit and prevent others from exploiting them without paying for the privilege. This "right of publicity" is completely separate from copyright, and what they decide to charge is up to them.

If the images you used were created by someone other than you, such as a movie studio or photographer, those images are protected by copyright. Copyright law sets statutory damages (damages that do not have to be proven) for unauthorized use of images. $1,000 is at the low end of the statutory range. A court could award them as much as $150,000 per infringement (each use of each image) for willful infringement (which means you knew what you were doing and did it anyway), which might apply in your case. PLEASE NOTE: It does not matter whether you made any money off the infringement--even if you gave the bows away for free, the same damages apply.

What you might do is attempt to negotiate a lesser fee, but that is something you would need to discuss with the person who sent the letter. You may want to consider getting an attorney to assist you.

CAVEAT: THE ABOVE IS POSTED FOR INFORMATION ONLY, AND SHOULD NOT BE CONSTRUED AS LEGAL ADVICE. IT MAY OR MAY NOT APPLY IN ANY PARTICULAR SITUATION.