Pop star loses $10m libel claim over magazine's 'sex tape' story

Published on Wednesday 8 November 2006 01:52

A JUDGE has dismissed a libel case brought by the pop singer Britney Spears, delivering some telling words about the source of the star's celebrity.

Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole dismissed a suit brought by Spears, accusing Us Weekly magazine of fabricating a story about a sexually explicit video the pop star and her husband, the dancer Kevin Federline, made together.

The suit, filed last year by the couple, sought $10 million (5.2 million) in damages against Us Weekly over the article, which appeared in October 2005, about a month after Spears gave birth to her first child.

The magazine said it stood by its account, which ran under the headline: "Brit & Kev: Secret Sex Tape? New parents have a new worry: racy footage from 2004."

According to the article, the celebrity couple had told their lawyers that "a member of their entourage had threatened to release raunchy footage" of them and that Spears feared that "an X-rated tape starring the two may go public". The magazine also reported that Spears and Federline gave a copy of the tape to lawyers and watched it with them.

The couple said the article was libellous - but the judge disagreed.

The judge went on to conclude that Spears has "put her modern sexuality squarely, and profitably, before the public eye" in a way that would make it unlikely for the magazine article to be found defamatory.

Ms Hart Cole cited Spears' 2005 television reality show Britney & Kevin: Chaotic, which chronicled her courtship and marriage to Federline, based largely on home videos shot by the pop star.

The judge noted that the series included scenes of Spears, 24, filming Federline naked in a shower, Spears interviewing Federline during a night-time bus ride while she was naked, and "otherwise catching plaintiff talking uninhibitedly about her sex life".