Judge Tosses Britney's Libel Suit
Like her world tour, her sexy jeans and her shopping spree, Britney Spears' lawsuit has been deemed outrageous.
A judge has dismissed the pop star's libel suit against Us Weekly, ruling there was no way Spears could win her claim that an article referring to an alleged sex tape featuring her and hubby Kevin Federline was defamatory.
Spears and K-Fed filed suit against the celebrity magazine last December after it ran an item in its "Hot Stuff" column under the headline "Brit & Kev: Secret Sex Tape? New Parents Have a New Worry: Racy Footage from 2004." The couple, who claimed that they never made such a tape, were seeking $10 million in damages.
Us reported in October 2005 that Spears and Federline "feared that an X-rated tape starring the two may go public" and had shown the tape to their lawyers, who in turn either laughed at, or were grossed out by, the duo's onscreen antics.
"The article is libelous on its face, since it maliciously and recklessly portrays [Spears] as acting 'goofy' while watching" the video with their attorneys, the lawsuit stated, adding that, because the sex tape in question didn't even exist in the first place, the item was "a despicable work of fiction comprised of blatant lies from beginning to end."
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole determined, however, that because Spears has "put her modern sexuality squarely, and profitably, before the public eye," it is not defamatory to suggest that she and her husband made a video depicting them engaged in consensual sex.
"It is clear that plaintiff did not bring this lawsuit because she was falsely accused of acting goofy," Hart Cole wrote in her ruling. She also pointed to the winner of 2005's unofficial too-much-information award, Britney & Kevin: Chaotic, as a reason to question the couple's use of home video to chronicle their relationship.
Us moved to have the case thrown out in February, standing by its reporting and calling the article's subject a matter of public interest. Hart Cole said in March that she needed more information from both parties before deciding whether to dismiss the case.
But now…case dismissed.
Spears, who has sold more than 76 million records since bursting on the scene in 1998 with ...Baby One More Time, is expected to put the focus back on her music (if that's still possible) next year. Her fifth studio album, Fear Within, is due out in mid-2007.
To give the tabloids one less thing to talk about, the mother of two is supposedly working with a trainer to get back into fighting (i.e., bikini) shape.
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