A lawsuit was filed on Friday against Splash News & Picture Agency of Los Angeles. According to the case, two of their paparazzi supplied actor Heath Ledger with cocaine so they could secretly videotape him taking drugs.
The lawsuit names the company’s managing partner Gary Morgan, and paparazzi Eric Munn and Darren Banks.
A portion of the said video was aired briefly on two U.S. television shows (“ET” and sister show “The Insider”) days after the actor’s death in January. The footage was sold to various media outlets around the world – including Britain and the actor’s native Australia. Thankfully the two U.S. shows decided against broadcasting the full footage out of respect for the actor.
According to the suit, the video has generated more than $1 million in revenues. But based on a California state law, the paparazzi are required to give up any profit obtained through illegal activity.
The incident was reported to have happened on January 29, 2006. The two paparazzi paid for the cocaine and gave it to the actor – who was then widely reported to have struggled with substance abuse – and then filmed the entire session using a hidden camera. It happened at the Chateau Marmont Hotel on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip. The actor was attending an after-party celebration for his Screen Actors Guild Award for the widely acclaimed film Brokeback Mountain.
The suit was filed by a woman who was a former freelance reporter for People magazine. She was dating one of the paparazzi at that time and was covering the after-party event.
“She does not seek publicity by the filing of this lawsuit … but she does want to expose the bad actions,” said her attorney, Douglas L. Johnson. “If anything, she’s seeking damages for the invasion of her privacy.”
Aside from invasion of privacy, the suit also seeks damages for fraud, claiming that what happened damaged her reputation by making others believe that she had something to do with the “entrapment.†Her claims against them also include negligence, trespassing, and intentional infliction of emotional distress.
The woman is suing for unspecified damages and profits from the sale of the videotape because she says the defendants took control of a hotel room that she paid for and filmed her without her permission. She also claims her reputation has been damaged as a result of being featured in the footage. She wanted to destroy the tapes.
“She was deceived and doesn’t feel too good about it,” her attorney told the AP. “She tried to physically throw them out of the room.”
According to the suit, after meeting and befriending the actor in the hotel lounge, her date and the other paparazzo invited the actor back to her hotel room. Then they gave him the cocaine and all three men began snorting the coke. Then one of the two paparazzi later left the room and went to the balcony, where he began shooting video footage of everyone through a window.
After some time, the actor somehow realized he was being videotaped. Of course, he was angered by what they did but was promised the video would be destroyed and was convinced to stay after he was brought more cocaine.
The suit also claims that the actor had some cocaine of his own.
People magazine confirmed that she was a freelancer for them at the time but has not been associated with the mag since last year.
“We heard about an alleged encounter with Ledger, but there were too many questions surrounding the circumstances for us to write about it,” People spokeswoman Sandi Shurgin Werfel said.
We all know that these paparazzi won’t stop at anything for a story. But giving drugs to an addict is beyond human. And I think this is not the first time this had happened. They must’ve done this lots of times before and it’s only now that a case is filed against it. We hope more people fry for these inhuman acts.
