Going for the Sack: ESPN Argues that Jason Pierre-Paul Authorized Release of Medical Records

On September 12, 2016, ESPN and Adam Schefter filed an answer in Jason Pierre-Paul’s invasion of privacy lawsuit, claiming that the suit should be dismissed due to the fact that Pierre-Paul agreed to let his medical records go public. This is not the first time ESPN and Schefter have attempted to dismiss this case — back in May, ESPN claimed that dismissal was warranted under First Amendment protections for matters of public interest.

In the answer, ESPN and Schefter raise several affirmative defenses, two of …

March 21, 2016 Celebrities / Litigation / Privacy Rights

Hulk Hogan Awarded $115 Million in Bout Against Gawker

On Friday, March 18, 2016, after only about six hours of deliberation, a jury of four women and two men hit gossip-site Gawker with a $115 million damages verdict against it in the Hulk Hogan civil suit over right of privacy and publicity charges. The award, which was handed down on the same day that attorneys for both sides delivered their closing statements, included $55 million in economic damages and $60 million in noneconomic damages. Hogan had been seeking $100 million in total from the …

March 18, 2016 Celebrities / Litigation / Privacy Rights

Gawker Tries One Final Takedown of Hulk Hogan’s Persona as Trial Nears End

On Thursday, March 17, 2016, Gawker Media LLC, the defendant in a $100 million right of privacy trial brought by wrestling icon and American hero Hulk Hogan over the news site’s publication of a sex tape featuring the Hulkster, made one last stand to the jury on the ninth day of trial and on the eve of closing statements. In keeping consistent with the argument it’s made throughout the trial—that the celebrity and former WWE star Hogan repeatedly bragged about and discussed issues of his …

March 18, 2016 Celebrities / Litigation / Privacy Rights

Hulk Hogan Trial Update: Jury Hears Lover’s Testimony

Jurors in the $100 million invasion of privacy trial between wrestling superhero Hulk Hogan and gossip-site Gawker heard the previously recorded deposition of Heather Cole — formerly Heather Clem, ex-wife of radio personality Bubba the Love Sponge — better known as the woman Hogan was caught having an affair with in a secretly videotaped intimate rendezvous dating back to 2006. She testified that her former husband told her to have sex with Hogan but never informed her that the encounter was going to be filmed. …

March 16, 2016 Celebrities / Litigation / Privacy Rights

Real or Fake? Attorneys in Hulk Hogan Sex Tape Trial Showing Litigation Can Be as Entertaining as Wrestling

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 …