The Hulk Hogan sex tape civil trial against gossip-site Gawker ended its sixth day of in-court proceedings Monday, March 14, 2016. The case itself is being heavily covered by the media, with defendant Gawker even livestreaming the trial on its website, and comes out of an incident in which the media company published an edited, unsolicited version of a sexual encounter between wrestling-icon Hogan and his former best friend’s wife, Heather Clem. According to Hogan, the affair happened in 2006, and although the rendezvous was encouraged by Clem’s husband, radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge, Hogan claims he was unaware that the two were being filmed. Gawker, after obtaining the tape from an anonymous source, published a 100-second long clip of the tape, prompting Hogan’s current suit for $100 million on invasion of privacy and First Amendment claims.
On Monday, three former editors for Gawker took the stand to defend their decision to publish the tape (which only included 9 seconds of actual sex between Hogan and Clem), saying that the video itself was newsworthy and thus not civilly protected. Attorneys for Hogan blasted the editors, discussing topics such as child pornography (as former Editor-in-Chief A.J. Daulerio, who held the position at the time the sex tape was released in 2012, said in a deposition he wouldn’t publish sexual videos of a child if she was under four, but otherwise would, because they would qualify as newsworthy) and improper nepotism (as former managing editor Emma Charmichael was asked, by a written note through the jury no less, if she quickly ascended to such a position by sleeping with her bosses).
The questioning kicked off what should be another exciting week of trial, as the first week proved to be nothing but eventful. Whether it was experts testifying that the release of the illicit tape increased Gawker’s valuation by $10 million just based on internet traffic, or Hogan telling jurors how well-endowed the wrestling character, but not the man behind the persona, is and that being a celebrity gave him blanket permission to lie to the public about almost everything in order to keep up the character’s image, this case is truly showing that actual litigation can be as fun and exciting as what you see on TV.
The trial is expected to continue throughout the week.