Day on Torts
Colin Farrell does not want Nicole Narain, a former Playboy Miss January, to distribute a 15-minute video tape showing the two of them engaged in sexual activity.
They entered into an oral agreement to keep it private.
He alleges that she was about to market the tape, so he filed suit against her and her alleged potential co-distributors. Here is some (but not all) of the complaint. You can see a photograph of the defendant there, too.
Farrell got a TRO to stop distribution of the tape for the time being.
The suit alleges not only breach of contract but also the tort of invasion of privacy and of the right of publicity.
I was talking with my friend Flavius, a lawyer from Burning Stump, Tennessee, last night and asked him what he thought about the controversy. He thought about it for a moment and asked “Ain’t she the one that was in that edition of Playboy that had that cartoon about the redneck, his momma, and the three-legged, one-eyed hound named Lucky?” I allowed that I had not looked at Playboy since I was old enough to legally buy one. He said “Yeah, I’m pretty sure that’s the one. Heck, if it was me co-starrin’ in that video I’d pay her to send the tape around.”
Of course, as we say down here in the South, that Flavius, he ain’t right.