Ash Knotek/Snappers/ZUMAPress.comNo one gets Verne Troyer more interviews than he's had in years and gets away with it!
The diminutive actor has sued the ex-girlfriend who leaked their sex tape to TMZ.com, contending that her actions constituted "perhaps the most flagrant violation of an individual's personal privacy rights" and that, on more than one occasion, she got rough with him after he tried to break up with her. (View the lawsuit.)
He's seeking at least $20 million in damages.
Renae Shrider's "complete betrayal," in which she persuaded him to "agree to videotape their most intimate moments, with the sole and exclusive intent to 'sell him out' by leaking a portion of the videotape to a tabloid internet website as a trailer…and then to attempt to sell the full videotape to the highest bidder," has left him with "great mental, physical and nervous pain and suffering," states the lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
Troyer alleges that Shrider, who he has said exposed the tape to get back at him for dumping her in June, at first denied having any knowledge of how the video got out.
She had refused to move out of his home until he gave her $3,000, the complaint says. Shrider took the money and stayed put, however, while continuing to "come into his bedroom, uninvited, to harass and start arguments" with Troyer. Multiple times, when he attempted to leave, she would block the door with her 5-foot, 5-inch frame.
"During one or more arguments," Shrider grabbed the 2-foot, 8-inch Love Guru star "forcefully by the arm, held him against his will, and did not let him get away from her."
Once, in the presence of his manager, Troyer claims, Shrider threw him to the bedroom floor. He called the police and she denied having attacked him, after which he opted not to press charges, assuming that was the end of it.
"I saw her when I left today, and she was calling me names and stuff...so I can't get away from it," Troyer told E! News in a July 16 interview.
Troyer has also filed suit against individuals Holly Bannon and Okorie Okorocha, whom he alleges were trying to broker the sex-tape deal for Shrider, and a company called Twin Palms, which the lawsuit identifies as some kind of videotape distributor.
The actor settled a previous lawsuit against TMZ, celeb-porn broker Kevin Blatt and SugarDVD—which agreed not to move forward with selling the X-rated footage without Troyer's permission—shortly after Shrider admitted to leaking the tape herself.