Celebrities Lose Nude Photo Cases

Talk-radio therapist Laura Schlessinger and former “Baywatch” star Pamela Anderson Lee lost court battles Monday to stop a sex-oriented Internet company from disseminating nude pictures of them.

In separate federal court cases, the celebrities’ lawyers tried to block Seattle-based Internet Entertainment Group from circulating 12 nude photos of Schlessinger taken two decades ago and a sexually explicit honeymoon video of Anderson Lee and her now estranged husband, rock star Tommy Lee.

Internet Entertainment Group bills itself as the No. 1 purveyor of sexually oriented material on the Web.

Neither Schlessinger nor Anderson Lee attended the proceedings.

In Schlessinger’s case, U.S. District Judge Dean Pregerson lifted a restraining order that he had issued Oct. 23 after Internet Entertainment posted color photos of a bare-breasted and sometimes fully nude Dr. Laura on its Club Love sex site.

He agreed with company lawyers that any further court injunction would be pointless because at least five other Web sites had copied the photos without permission and posted them on their own sites.

In addition, the company’s lawyers said in a legal brief, the photos had been replicated anonymously at countless news group sites, making them accessible to millions of Internet users worldwide.

“Simply stated,” they said, “the photographs are no longer ‘private facts.’ ”

Schlessinger, author of the bestseller “The Ten Stupid Things Women Do to Mess Up Their Lives,” still can pursue her lawsuit against the company. It charges invasion of privacy and misuse of her publicity.

The photos were taken by Schlessinger’s former mentor and lover, talk-radio pioneer Bill Ballance, who sold them to the Internet company for “tens of thousands of dollars,” according to a news release from Internet Entertainment Group.

Ballance, also a defendant in the federal lawsuit, was quoted in the news release as saying that he took the pictures at Schlessinger’s request in his Hollywood apartment and in hotel rooms in Palm Springs and the Grand Canyon.

He said the photo sessions began one day when Schlessinger was prancing naked through his apartment, admiring her figure.

“I reminded her that it would not always be like that and would eventually start sagging,” Ballance said. “She agreed, and she said, ‘I’d like you to take some photographs of me the way I am now at the age of 28 so that I can look back one day and see that this is the way I once was.’ ”

Now 51, Schlessinger has since become a vigorous proponent in her daily, three-hour call-in program of sexual abstinence outside marriage, stronger families and Judeo-Christian values. Her show has surpassed Rush Limbaugh’s in audience ratings.

The day’s court action proved even worse for Pamela Anderson Lee.

After hearing arguments, Pregerson said he intends to throw out her entire suit because the Lees signed away their rights to damages in a 1997 out-of-court settlement with Internet Entertainment Group.

The Lees taped the sexually explicit video while honeymooning. They said it was later stolen from a locked safe in their home and sold to Internet Entertainment Group, which posted it on its members-only Web site.

The couple initially filed suit in state court, contending that the company was guilty of receiving stolen property, invasion of privacy and using the video without permission.

In an out-of-court settlement, the Lees agreed to drop their suit and waived their future right to sue on a broad variety of grounds.

David Weeks, an attorney for the couple, argued in court Monday that the Lees and their former lawyers thought that the agreement applied only to dissemination of the tape on the Internet.

He said no one could have reasonably envisioned that Internet Entertainment would distribute the tape on videotape, CD-ROM and in hotel rooms worldwide.

He estimated that the company has sold about 200,000 copies of the tape at $40 each, for a total of $8 million in revenue.

Alan L. Isaacman, a 1st Amendment lawyer who has represented Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt, argued that the settlement agreement was not limited to the Internet.

Pregerson said he was inclined to agree. He is expected to issue a written opinion in the coming weeks.