A federal judge has dismissed Tommy and Pamela Anderson Lee's lawsuit against Penthouse magazine and rejected their claims of invasion of privacy. The
Lees filed suit after the publication ran an article about their marriage,
complete with photos featuring the duo naked and engaging in "sexual
touching." The photos were taken from a home video the couple made for
nostalgia-- not, we assume, for "how-to" purposes. The couple alleges that the
tape was stolen from their Malibu home by a construction worker, who then sold
it to the highest bidder-- Penthouse publisher Bob Guccione. The Lees claimed that Penthouse used Pamela's image for profit, placing her on the June 1996 cover in a tight
red dress, and violated her privacy by printing the photos inside. U.S. District
Judge Stephen Wilson ruled that there was no invasion of privacy because the
locations where the couple engaged in sex-- in a car on the highway, and on a boat-- were public places. Wilson called the article accompanying the photographs a
"fluffy piece," but said it was still newsworthy because it contained
the Lees' reaction to the photos being published in earlier editions of the
French and Dutch versions of Penthouse and Screw magazine. The
judge noted that Mrs. Lee has been forthcoming on intimate details of her life
before, noting that she had told an interviewer that her name is tattooed on her
husband's penis, and that she swings naked on a perch above his piano. In making
his ruling, Wilson said that Tommy Lee is a major rock star, and that Pamela is
"perhaps even better known than her husband," singling out her career
as a Playboy model and a star of Baywatch. That judge is in touch!
