Mini-Me Faces Major Hurdle in Sex Tape Suit

Verne Troyer unable to copyright the sex tape he appears in due to inability to track down a copy of the footage

By Gina Serpe Aug 07, 2008 7:35 PMTags
Verne TroyerAP Photo/Matt Sayles

Verne Troyer is finding out the hard way that you can't copyright a sex tape that doesn't exist. Or at least, that has no paper trail.

The erstwhile Mini-Me has hit yet another snag in his quest to prevent the sex tape made with former girlfriend Ranae Shrider from becoming public fodder, coming up empty in his search to locate a copy of the X-rated footage, thereby copywriting it and, ideally, preventing its distribution.

Shrider, unsurprisingly, has provided no assistance to her diminutive former better half, with her manager telling the Los Angeles Times she hasn't seen the tape since selling it to an anonymous man who approached her with a wad of cash outside their once-shared house.

"He just said, 'Here's some money,' " Shrider's manager, Holly Bannon, told the paper. "She just wanted to be rid of it, so she said OK."

Bannon said the transaction, which earned Shrider $5,000, was a simple "cash deal" and that no paperwork was involved. She added that while the male buyer, who presented himself as a private collector, gave her his name, she assumed it was a false one and thus has been unable to track the tape.

Troyer's attorney, meanwhile, was less than sold on Bannon's account of events.

"Come on!" Edwin McPherson told the L.A. Times. "Some guy just pulled up to the curb and gave her five grand? Was it in a paper bag?"

While the 2-foot, 8-inch Love Guru star broke things off with the 5-foot, 5-inch Shrider in June, she only recently moved out of their joint home.

The $20 million lawsuit Troyer filed against her on July 31, for what he deemed "perhaps the most flagrant violation of an individual's personal privacy rights," could have a little something to do with why.