So far, Colin Farrell has managed to do what Paris and Pamela couldn't.
A Los Angeles judge has rejected Farrell's ex-girlfriend's request to clear the way to release the former couple's steamy, three-year-old sex tape.
Nicole Narain, Playboy's Miss January of 2002, had asked Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Elihu Berle to throw out Farrell's lawsuit barring her from distributing the videotaped hookup. Farrell filed his suit last July, claiming Narain and her porn-peddling pals had no right to release the X-rated romp because the 15-minute tape had been for private viewing only.
On Monday, Berle denied Narain's motion, ruling there was sufficient evidence provided in Farrell's complaint for the trial to go forward. Berle said it was up to a jury to decide whether Narain committed a litany of transgressions as alleged by her ex, including breach of oral contract, invasion of privacy, violation of common law right of publicity, unfair competition and unfair business practices.
The judge also rejected Narain's argument that her ex-beau's lawyers were making an unsupported copyright infringement claim against the former Playmate. Farrell's lawyer, Paul Berra, called the latter claim a red herring, saying that if the case was about copyright violations, it would have been brought before a federal court instead.
As for Narain's attorney, Leodis Matthews, the judgment didn't appear to be much of a surprise.
"The judge took the position we pretty much expected he would take, but we had to narrow down some of the issues," Matthews said outside court.
Matthews added that next he will file an answer to Farrell's sex tape lawsuit and a counterclaim seeking a specific delineation of his client's rights in the pending case.
Narain and Matthews' argument will hinge on Farrell's intentions in making the tape, claiming the actor can be heard toward the end of the video asking Narain what she wants to do with the footage.
Not that they've been able to pin down the Miami Vice star to ask him.
Earlier this month, Matthews spoke out against Farrell, saying the star was not cooperating with them and had repeatedly avoided giving a deposition in the case.
"We've been trying to do the plaintiff's deposition for the last three months," Matthews told Los Angeles' KCAL 9 News at the time. "We've heard everything from [drug] rehabilitation to travel outside the country."
As it stands, Narain challenges the Irishman's claim that they agreed to keep the tape private and furthermore says that as "cocreator" of the video, federal copyright laws grant her the right to produce, market, distribute and, most importantly, profit from it.
But for the time being, a restraining order is in place to keep Narain from doing any of those things. The order, coming at Farrell's request, is temporarily blocking public release of the tape, though it hasn't always done its job.
On Jan. 10, both stills and clips of the duo's explicit escapades were briefly leaked on the Internet. While Narain denied any part in the surfacing of the footage, she did admit to meeting with the adult Website company Internet Commerce Group and celebrity porn broker David Hans Schmidt to discuss ways of marketing the titillating romp.
Shortly after the leak, a new defendant was added to the case. Farrell's camp expanded their suing scope to include former Price Is Right model Candace Smith as a defendant, accusing her of attempting to sell the footage.
Berle has ordered mediation for the trial to wrap up by Apr. 20 and set a status conference for Apr. 27. If both sides fail to come to a resolution on the claims, a trial date has already been penciled in for July 17.