Legal News

Fallout from L?Affaire Spitzer: ?Kristen? Sues ?Girls Gone Wild? Founder

By Dan Slater

It was just seven weeks ago that news of Eliot Spitzer and the prostitute broke, heralding one of the biggest media circuses in recent history and Spitzer’s speedy resignation from the governor’s office. For one dizzying week we batted around phrases like “Mann Act,” “structuring” and “Client 9.” Since then, at least on the Law Blog’s beat, the Spitzer story’s been slim pickins.

But the legacy of “Kristen” (a/k/a Ashley Alexandra Dupré), the prostitute whom Spitzer hired, lives on. The latest: Dupré is demanding $10 million from Joe Francis, the founder of the popular “Girls Gone Wild” series, for a video that Dupré appeared in when she was 17. (She turns 23 tomorrow. Happy Birthday, Ashley!) Click here for the complaint, courtesy of the Miami Herald, which has the story here.

The suit, filed in federal court in Miami by Dupré’s lawyer, Richard C. Wolfe of Wolfe & Goldstein, alleges that Francis has profited from false advertising and unauthorized use of her name and images. Dupré was unable to make an informed decision about appearing in the video, the complaint says, because Francis had provided “alcoholic beverages or other substances” and/or approached Dupré when she was already “under the influence of some intoxicant.” According to the complaint, agents and representatives of Francis approached Dupré at the Chesterfield Hotel and induced her, after she became drunk, “into exposing her breasts while being filmed.”

The Miami Herald reports that Francis, 35, who arrived in Miami on Monday to promote his new “Girls Gone Wild” magazine, said he’s ”never sold one” video of Dupré and referred questions to his attorneys.

After her sudden notoriety, Dupré reportedly received a million-dollar offer from Francis, who later rescinded the offer when he realized he already had footage of her in his archives. Calling the video “Hooker Gone Wild,” Francis is reportedly advertising it on his Web sites and inserting it in copies of the new magazine.

The suit claims that Francis has caused ‘’substantial and irreparable injury to the plaintiff’s business, reputation and good will.”

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 29, 2008 (boomark / email).