J.Lo Cashes Out

Wed., Sep. 5, 2007 3:11 PM PDT by Josh Grossberg

Love don't cost a thing, as far as Jennifer Lopez is concerned. Tell-alls written by her ex, however, are another matter.

A California judge has awarded $545,000 to the 38-year-old singer-actress in connection with a lawsuit she filed against her first ex-hubby, Ojani Noa, to block the release of a tell-all tome about their short-lived union.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Michael C. Solner on Wednesday upheld a ruling by a court-ordered arbitrator that the Cuban-born Noa had violated a previous confidentiality agreement by shopping around a manuscript purportedly divulging secrets of Lopez's private life.

Among the juicy tidbits were details on their first sexual encounter together and claims that his former missus cheated on him multiple times, including a dalliance with her current husband and El Cantante costar Marc Anthony when he was still married to former Miss Universe Dayanara Torres.

Lopez swapped vows with Noa in 1997, before she became the Hollywood hyphenate she is today, after the two met while he was working as a waiter at a Miami restaurant. Her career began to take off, and she divorced him 11 months later.

The pair remained friendly enough that Lopez hired Noa to manage her Pasadena eatery, Madre's, in 2002. But when she subsequently fired him six months later, Noa shot back with a wrongful-termination lawsuit. The matter was resolved out of court, with Noa receiving a settlement of $125,000 that also mandated he not disclose information about their relationship.

After hearing that Noa was trying his hand at a writing career and that she would be his first subject, Lopez sued him in April and asked for a permanent injunction on the publication of the book, on the grounds that he had informed her he would consider dropping the project if she paid him $5 million.

The restaurant worker claimed the tattle tale was about his immigrant life story, not the Anaconda star specifically, but neither the arbitrator, Richard Cernick, nor the judge bought that argument.

During Wednesday's hearing, Solner granted that permanent injunction barring Noa from "criticizing, denigrating, casting in a negative light or otherwise disparaging or causing disparagement to plaintiff." He instructed Noa to hand over all copies of materials pertaining to the book.

According to a Los Angeles wire report, J. Lo's ex asked Solner to delay the award's entry into law for 30 days to give him time to find a new lawyer, but the judge denied the request, since he had already given him three prior chances to do so.

"I think it's unfair, to be honest, your honor,'' Noa said in court.

"I'm sure you do,'' Solner replied.

Not helping Noa was the fact that he represented himself throughout the proceedings. His previous attorney entered into arbitration last October with Lopez, but Noa claimed that because of his poor English skills, he didn't understand the implications of the move. As it happened, he also didn't realize his then counsel didn't actually have a license to practice law either, so he decided to go up against Lopez's legal eagles on his own.

The judgment means the former waiter will have to pony up $200,000 in compensatory damages for breach of the previous settlement, plus an additional $300,000 in attorneys' fees and $48,000 in arbitration costs.

Outside the courtroom, Noa denied to Spanish-language reporters that he was trying to damage Lopez's reputation, noting he had "too much class for that."

Lopez's attorney, Paul Sorrell, did not return a phone call seeking comment.