Steve-O, Bodyguard Sued for Boutique Bopping
Maybe working for Steve-O has made his bodyguard forget that most people don’t enjoy the occasional blow to the head.
A former security guard has sued the Jackass daredevil and his muscle, Reggie Pace, for assault and battery, claiming Pace punched him when he refused to let their entourage into a West Hollywood boutique last summer.
“It’s all about getting justice,” Joseph Barrett, attorney for the plaintiff, Roland Cano, said in a statement Thursday. “Steve-O may believe he is someone special who can make his own rules, but he will learn that the same rules apply to him. He can’t hid behind his friend in this fight.”
According to his lawsuit, which was filed Tuesday, Roland Cano was hired to work the door at Kitson during an Aug. 16 party for the launch of Paris Hilton’s new clothing line for the chi-chi shopping spot.
Cano recalls denying Steve-O, whose real name is Stephen Glover, entry to the boutique when he tried to get in with his pals and a camera crew filming the stuntmeister’s USA reality show Dr. Steve-O. (USA Networks and parent company NBC Universal have also been named as defendants.)
Steve-O then said he was going to “go over everyone’s head here in a moment” and subsequently pushed through the door along with Pace, who measures in at 6-feet, nine-inches, the plaintiff alleges, per documents obtained by TMZ.com.
When Cano followed them into the store and tried to escort Steve-O back outside, Pace “leaned into plaintiff and without provocation violently punched [his] face and head repeatedly.”
Steve-O’s camp hasn’t commented on the suit but, according to Cano’s complaint, he said at the time: “I just had my dude rip that security guard’s face…It was awesome…I just needed to see my security guard rough everyone the f–k up.”
People will do anything to be on TV today, eh?
In addition to assault and battery, Cano is also claiming negligent and intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and negligent hiring and retention. He’s seeking unspecified damages and attorney’s fees.
NBC to Catch a Settlement
The Peacock blinked.
NBC has settled a lawsuit brought by the family of a Texas prosecutor who took his own life after he became the target of a Dateline: To Catch a Predator investigation, an NBC rep confirmed.
“The matter has been amicably resolved to the satisfaction of both parties,” network spokeswoman Jenny Tartikoff said in a statement.
Financial details of the settlement were not disclosed. The network has removed several show clips from its website.
The sister of Louis W. Conradt Jr. filed a $105 million suit last year against the network, alleging Dateline producers goaded the government attorney into committing suicide after an episode of its popular Predator series accused him of soliciting sex with a 13-year-old boy over the Internet.
When confronted by police and a Dateline video crew outside his suburban Dallas home in November 2006, Conradt shot himself rather than become the latest “catch” of the highly rated program, which sets up online sting operations and then confronts alleged perps.
The suit raised questions about the candid-camera style methods employed by Predator’s producers, its no-nonsense correspondent Chris Hansen and Internet watchdog group Perverted Justice.
The complaint alleged that NBC “steamrolled” local law enforcement to take the 56-year-old assistant county prosecutor into custody after producers failed to lure him to a decoy house in a suburb 35 miles away, where cameras were waiting for him.
It was the ninth such sweep initiated by the newsmagazine, which has accounted for more than two dozen arrests.
Things weren’t looking so good for the broadcaster after a federal judge ruled in February that the lawsuit could proceed to trial on claims of intentional infliction of emotional distress and violation of civil rights.
U.S. District Judge Denny Chin wrote in his opinion that NBC had “crossed the line” by putting itself “squarely in the middle of a police operation, pushing the police to engage in tactics that were unnecessary and unwise, solely to generate more dramatic footage for a television show.”
In doing so, he said, the network “created a substantial risk of suicide or other harm.”
At the time, NBC maintained the suit had no merit.
Agency Wants Ledger Drug Lawsuit Dismissed
A paparazzi agency wants no part of a lawsuit claiming its shutterbugs lured Heath Ledger into snorting cocaine on camera two years before his drug-fueled death.
Attorneys for Splash News are asking a judge to toss out the suit, filed by a woman identified only as Jane Doe. They claim there is not enough evidence to support some of her allegations, while other claims weren’t filed before the statute of limitations expired.
The plaintiff has said she was working as a freelance reporter for People at the time and was dating one of the photographers named as a defendant. She claims that was also caught on the tape, which was shot in her hotel room without her consent, and is seeking damages for fraud, intrusion, infliction of emotional distress and privacy violations.
But the Splash attorneys say her face was “blurred out” in the footage and therefore her privacy could not have been violated. Further, they argue that other parts of her claim are bogus because she “has improperly attempted to assert the rights of a dead celebrity within her complaint.”
A hearing on the motions is scheduled July 17, but Splash News lawyers also have filed papers requesting that Los Angeles Superior Court Judge John P. Shook be removed from the case on grounds he is prejudiced against the agency. Such a move is a standard buying-time tactic in such cases; Shook was randomly assigned the case when it was filed April 11.
Per the suit, two Splash photogs were working an after-party at Hollywood’s Chateau Marmont hotel following the SAG Awards in January 2006, where Ledger was up for Best Actor for his work in Brokeback Mountain.
According to the plaintiff’s account of the incident, one of the photogs “gave Ledger a package of cocaine. Mr. Ledger also had some of his own. The cocaine was put on the table [in a hotel room reserved by the plaintiff], and the men began snorting cocaine.”
Ledger did not know that the second Splash photographer was “outside our hotel room, on the balcony, hidden, shooting video footage of everyone in the room,” the suit continues.
When he did discover he was being taped, Ledger got angry and he was promised the tape would be destroyed, the suit says.
A promise that apparently fell by the waysideEntertainment Tonight and sister scandalmonger The Insider scooped up the rights to the footage for a reported $200,000 earlier this year, but they bowed to pressure from the Ledger camp and decided against airing the tape.
A rep for the actor, who died Jan. 22 of an accidental prescription drug overdose, has said that the video does not actually show Ledger using cocaine, although he mentions previous marijuana use.
Lindsay Looking to Nip Bodyguard Suit in the Bud
Lindsay Lohan wants to make the bodyguard she says she never knew go away.
The starlet’s legal camp is looking to settle a lawsuit brought against her by David Kim, who claims Lohan owes him more than $55,000 for his time spent as part of her security detail, according to court documents filed by both parties.
Detailing all sorts of thankless little extras he says he provided while on the job, Kim sued Lohan and her Crossheart Productions on April 7 for fraud, breach of oral contract, intentional infliction of emotional distress and various California Labor Code violations.
Meanwhile, the Mean Girls star maintains she doesn’t know Kim and, subsequently, never employed him, either.
But in his complaint, Kim says Crossheart hired him in October 2006 to protect Lohan for either $4,000 per week for 24/7 security or $2,800 for p.m. policing only. Aside from going unpaid for his services, he claims that, during the six months he worked for the actress, he incurred about $10,000 in out-of-pocket expenses for mileage, valet tips and other chauffeur-related expenses while ferrying Lohan between home and…wherever.
He also personally arranged for extra security and VIP tables at clubs and events to shield Lohan from the madding crowd and sustained $1,470 in damages that November when Lohan’s driver rammed into his car while making an illegal right turn to avoid paparazzi.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Ernest Hiroshige has given Lohan and Crossheart until June 30 to file a response to the suit, but her team seems eager to wipe this case from the docket as soon as possible.
The dueling parties are “presently continuing to exchange settlement proposals…to attempt to resolve [the case],” lawyers for both sides wrote in their latest court filing.