Burt Reynolds survived some gnarly situations in Deliverance, The Longest Yard and, God knows, Cannonball Run 2.
Now, the former box-office beefcake says he might be facing his most hellish challenge yet--a woman scorned.
Making like Bill O'Reilly, Reynolds filed a lawsuit Monday accusing his former gal-pal of 10 years, Pamela M. Seals, of extortion. Reynolds, 68, claims Seals had demanded millions in hush money for not floating rumors of his supposed bad behavior over the past decade.
In papers filed Monday in West Palm Beach, Florida, the furry chested actor says his former paramour threatened to go public with false charges that he would regularly yell at her and stomp her toes and that he was addicted to prescription painkillers.
The suit, excerpted online by The Smoking Gun, is apparently a preemptive strike against Seals and her attorney, Mark Maynor. Reynolds and his legal eagle, Bob Montgomery, filed first to get their side of the story out and limit the bad PR, à la O'Reilly.
The court papers, which devote much ink to a very selective Reynolds filmography (Smokey and the Bandit and Boogie Nights make the cut, but somehow Universal Soldier III: Unfinished Business was overlooked) and list of his awards (Emmy and Golden Globe for Evening Shade, Oscar and Globe nods for Boogie Nights), sets up Seals as a golddigger.
"When Reynolds and Seals first met, Seals had little to no formal education and was working as a bar maid/manager in Tampa," the suit says. Reynolds and Seals dated for several years, with him giving her "cars, vast sums of cash, tens of thousands of dollars in jewelry and clothing, the use of Reynolds' home, private assistants, affection, care and support."
After their breakup, Reynolds says he put a down payment on a $500,000 condo and paid health insurance for Seals and her mother. But, according to Reynolds, Seals wanted "more money and property 'for life,' or she will make slanderous and false allegations against Reynolds."
Montgomery says Reynolds also offered a $1 million settlement, even though they were never married and she wasn't legally entitled to anything (Reynolds announced in 1998 that he was ready to get engaged to Seals, but he never, ahem, sealed the deal). Montgomery says he took the deal off the table because Seals wanted more. The lawsuit notes that no criminal charges were filed against the actor.
"Absolutely absurd, ridiculous. There's nothing in any record whatsoever that would ever support such a scurrilous, untruthful complaint," Montgomery told reporters Monday.
Reynolds is seeking unspecified damages and a court order preventing his former flame from taking her case to California, where they briefly lived and which would offer a more generous payout to her should she win any litigation. In a brief statement, Reynolds calls the whole matter "unfortunate" and promising that he will not be "intimidated by false accusations."
For now, Seals' attorney Maynor says he hasn't seen the suit and is not going to comment. Seals, 48, has yet to file a lawsuit.
This will go down as the latest made-for-the-tabloids bust-up of Reynolds' notorious love life. His first marriage, to Laugh-In star Judy Carne, imploded in 1965 with her claiming Reynolds was abusive and him claiming Carne was a junky. Reynolds' second union, to Loni Anderson wasn't any more harmonious. Their scorched-earth split in 1996 cost him millions and helped force him to file for bankruptcy. Seals, by the way, was the Other Woman, in the Anderson breakup.
To help pay his legal bills, Reynolds is keeping busy with his day job. He's currently shooting a remake of The Longest Yard-- this time he'll play the coach in the prison football comedy costarring Adam Sandler and Chris Rock--and then will segue to the big-screen version of The Dukes of Hazzard, playing Boss Hogg opposite Seann William Scott (Bo), Johnny Knoxville (Luke) and Jessica Simpson (Daisy).