Talk about being in the wrong place at the wrong time—for everyone involved.
A lawsuit filed Friday against two paparazzi and the photo agency they were toiling for at the time alleges that the photogs purposely gave Heath Ledger cocaine at a January 2006 party and then secretly filmed him. (View the lawsuit.)
The plaintiff, referring to herself as Jane Doe in her complaint, states that she was working as a freelance reporter for People at the time and was dating one of the defendants, Darren Banks.
Doe, citing that she was also caught on the tape, which was shot in her hotel room without her consent, is suing for fraud, intrusion, infliction of emotional distress and privacy violations.
A spokeswoman for People confirmed to E! News that the plaintiff was freelancing for them at the time but "is no longer associated with the magazine and has not been since last year."
Per court documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, Doe was at the Chateau Marmont hotel in West Hollywood, where the party—a Screen Actors Guild affair—was taking place, when she observed Banks and his pal Eric Munn meet up with Ledger for a cigarette on the outside patio.
Ledger did not know the two men were paparazzi working for celebrity-photo peddler Splash News, Doe contends.
According to her account of the incident, "Munn gave Ledger a package of cocaine. Mr. Ledger also had some of his own. The cocaine was put on the table [in a hotel room reserved by the plaintiff], and the men began snorting cocaine. Plaintiff did not snort any cocaine at all that night."
Ledger and Dunn did not know that Munn was "outside our hotel room, on the balcony, hidden, shooting video footage of everyone in the room," the suit continues.
When he did discover he was being taped, Ledger got angry and he was promised the tape would be destroyed, Doe says.
A promise that apparently fell by the wayside—Entertainment Tonight and sister scandalmonger The Insider scooped up the rights to the footage for a reported $200,000 earlier this year, but they eventually decided against airing the tape out of consideration for Ledger's family.
A rep for the Brokeback Mountain star, who died on Jan. 22 of an accidental prescription drug overdose, has said that the video does not actually show Ledger using cocaine, although he mentions previous marijuana use. The late actor can be seen drinking out of a beer bottle, and there is an unidentified man who appears to be snorting coke.
Splash has declined to comment on the suit.