SHORT TAKES : Belli Takes Chuck Berry Lawsuit

SAN FRANCISCO —  Celebrity suer Melvin Belli will handle a $10-million lawsuit by rock ‘n’ roll legend Chuck Berry against a magazine that ran nude pictures of the sexagenarian with a similarly unclad female companion.

The publisher of magazine High Society magazine said in New York on Thursday that the pictures were purchased and that the magazine has a signed release from the seller.

Berry considered the photos his private property, Belli said Wednesday after he filed the lawsuit in San Francisco Superior Court.

Berry, 63, and his companion are posing side by side in most of the photos. No sexual acts are depicted. Berry said that the photos were stolen in September from his business office in St. Louis and that he does not know who turned them over to High Society.

The photos were printed without Berry’s permission and the magazine ignored requests not to print them, said Paul Monzione, the attorney handling the lawsuit for the Belli firm.

“We legitimately purchased those photos and we have a signed release from the party from whom we purchased it,” High Society publisher Gloria Leonard said.