Tuesday, October 02, 2007

Anna Nicole Smith Update

Anna Nicole Smith Book Prompts $60M Suit: " ATLANTA (AP) - Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern, filed a $60 million libel lawsuit Tuesday against Rita Cosby and her publisher over a book she wrote that claims Stern and Smith's ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, had a sexual encounter.

The suit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages from Cosby, the former MSNBC host who wrote 'Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death'—and Hachette Book Group USA Inc.

The book, which hit stores in September, claims that besides the alleged sexual encounter, Birkhead and Stern both worked together after Smith's death to manipulate the media and maximize profits."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

This one's gonna be fun. AND everybody wins. If Stern wins: well, he wins. If he loses - he's still All Over The Place and that's always fun. And no MATTER who wins, the book sales just by virtue of the filing are now gonna soar. The more the case drags on the bigger sales will get, the more books will be sold, ensuring the writer a huger slush fund for the payout if the writer loses. So, even if it was all fiction, it's brilliant fiction. I see a trend!! I love trends!! And if Stern loses: that will be even more fun. Just not for him.

Unknown said...

Too bad we didn't write the book.

Anonymous said...

yeah, a total foul up there. well, let's see: i once completed a successful imprinting process between myself and an eland. But I think that was already done to death in the Weekly World News, once the story got out. that's about the closest i've come so far to really a really hot steamy torrid shame-fest. Not that I was ashamed. But the eland was never quite the same fellow, i mean ungulate, after that. Naa, Bill, I gut nuthin' right at the moment. Sorry.

Barbara's Journey Toward Justice said...

Here is another great story about suing authors..DA Bill Peterson Suing The Innocent Man Dennis Fritz For Emotional Distress.

Dennis Fritz, who wrote the book, "Journey Toward Justice", is named as a defendant in a libel lawsuit along with , John Grisham, author of "The Innocent Man", Robert Mayer, author of "The Dreams of Ada", and all their publishers, and New York City attorney Barry Scheck, Fritz's former lawyer who once represented Fritz and is co-director of The Innocence Project. With the aid of Barry Scheck and irrefutable DNA evidence, Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson were exonerated in 1999.

Pontotoc County District Attorney Bill Peterson and Gary Rogers, a former agent for the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigation filed the libel lawsuit.
The lawsuit, seeks at least $75,000 compensation and demands a jury trial. Peterson and Rogers were instrumental in the conviction of Ron Williamson and Dennis Fritz in the murder of Debbie Sue Carter in Ada, Oklahoma in 1982. The conviction was later overturned on DNA evidence pursued by the Innocence Project, which Scheck heads, Dennis Fritz was wrongfully convicted of a crime he did not commit and spent 12 years in prison. Part of the lawsuit claims the defendants conspired to commit libel against the plaintiffs, generate publicity for self
interest by placing them in a false light and intentionally inflicting emotional distress upon them.

So... Prosecutor with the help of Gary Rogers sent 2 innocent men, Dennis Fritz and Ron Williamson to prison for 12 years. Both Innocent men freed by DNA evaluation of crime scene evidence. Innocent man, Dennis Fritz writes book about his experiences. Prosecutor and Gary Rogers sue the innocent man they wrongfully sent to prison and Prosecutor and Rogers sue for intentionally inflicting emotional distress upon them. Only in America Folks...They are also suing all below for mentioning DA Bill Peterson and Rogers in their books.
•John Grisham, author of “The Innocent Man.”
•Robert Mayer, author of “The Dreams of Ada.”
•Dennis Fritz, the author of “Journey Toward Justice.”
•Barry Scheck, one of Fritz’s lawyers who helped exonerate him, and a co-author of “Actual Innocence,” that discusses the case of Williamson and Fritz.
•The Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, publisher of “The Innocent Man” and “Actual Innocence.”
•Random House Inc., which owns Doubleday Dell.
•Broadway Books, publisher of “The Dreams of Ada.”
•Seven Locks Press and/or James C. Riordan, publisher of “Journey Toward Justice.