Paparazzo Ambushes CBS With Copyright Infringement Suit

Image via WikipediaPaparazzi, the relentless photographers staking out celebrities, may be lawless in the public's mind, but that doesn't mean they can't also be litigious.

Witness Alan Zanger, as in Zanger v. CBS Corporation et al. (Case No. 1: 2011-cv-07483), who this week brought a copyright infringement action in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York alleging that CBS's The Early Show and The Insider featured his mother & child pics of Rielle Hunter, former Sen. John Edwards' mistress without his permission.

Zanger allegedly has an exclusive deal with tabloid New York Post since 2008 to publish candids of Edwards' & Hunter's kid, which US Weekly and Inside Edition have also licensed, according to a THR, Esq. blog post. Based on interest purportedly expressed by The Insider, Zanger claims that he forwarded a couple of Hunter photos to the CBS program for its review, which his complaint alleges have appeared on the Eye Network without his being compensated.

CBS has yet to respond to the suit that was filed October 21.

Judge Seals Testimony of Upcoming Rielle Hunter Deposition

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Bad news for National Enquirer readers: The Raleigh News & Observer reports that Hillsborough County Superior Court Judge Allen Baddour has ordered sealed any information gleaned from the as-yet unscheduled deposition of  Rielle Hunter, campaign videographer and canoodler of former presidential candidate John Edwards, in her lawsuit against Andrew Young, former Edwards aide and philanderer surrogate, concerning ownership rights of a sex tape starring Hunter and Edwards, the one-term, two-timing U.S. Senator from North Carolina.

Judge Baddour's order will keep Hunter's musings under oath under seal for 45 days, after which he will entertain arguments for extending the order.  Hunter's attorneys had tried to obtain a more extensive order from Judge Baddour that would have sealed all depositions in the case and imposed on parties a gag order preventing them from discussing the contents of deposition testimony in public.

Hunter's attorneys argued that exposing Hunter's testimony to public view would subject their client to an invasion of privacy and would be harmful to her reputation.  An interesting, if unpersuasive argument, given that Hunter freely babbled to Oprah about pitching woo with "Johnny" and posed, sans pants,  in GQ Magazine.

Sorry, "TUOL" readers--as much as you may hope for it, both parties in a civil lawsuit can't lose.

National Enquirer Eligible for Pulitzer Prize After All

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The Pulitzer Prize Board has accepted submissions from supermarket tabloid The National Enquirer.

The Enquirer is in the running for the coveted journalism prize in two categories: Investigative Reporting and National News Reporting for breaking  the lurid scandal involving former U.S. Senator and Democratic Vice-Presidential candidate John Edwards and his campaign videographer Rielle Hunter (see "TUOL" post 1/22/10). The Enquirer was first to report about the adulterous relationship, the out-of-wedlock child, and the ongoing federal grand jury probe of possible campaign fund misuse. Most recently, the paper alleged that Edwards and Hunter are engaged and living together in a $3.5 million beach house.  Edwards is separated from his wife, Elizabeth.

The Enquirer in recent years has bested the traditional mainstream media on political scandal stories, including the Sen.Gary Hart/Donna Rice affair and the Rev. Jesse Jackson's "love child."  A combination of persistent reporting and checkbook journalism--the Enquirer unapologetically pays sources--has brought the tabloid to the pantheon of journalistic excellence.

If the Enquirer wins, presumably executive editor Barry Levine will accept the award, rather than the spawn of Martian and Earthling canoodling about which the Enquirer has written in the past.

National Enquirer Hopes to Ride Sen. Edwards to a Pulitzer Prize

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Barry Levine, executive editor of The National Enquirer, told Washington Post Media Critic Howard Kurtz that the supermarket tabloid deserves the coveted Pulitzer Prize for its coverage of the sex scandal that derailed the political career of former Democratic presidential candidate and one-term U.S. Senator from North Carolina, John Edwards.

The Enquirer initially reported in 2007 that Sen. Edwards, the photogenic star litigator and John Kerry's vice-presidential running mate in the 2004 presidential election, engaged in an extramarital affair with his campaign videographer, Rielle Hunter. Edwards dismissed the allegations as "tabloid trash" at the time, but fessed up to Nightline in August 2008, that he was romantically involved with Hunter.

Nevertheless, Edwards continued to deny another Enquirer story that said he was the father of Hunter's child, again branding the Enquirer a "supermarket tabloid," and noting that the timing of events precluded him from having sired Hunter's baby. Apparently, Edwards has as much difficulty with math as morality, as he admitted to NBC correspondent Lisa Myers this week that he indeed was the father of Hunter's child. By the way, Edwards' wife, Elizabeth, was battling cancer during the course of her husband's escapades.

Although The Washington Post did report about allegations that Edwards' former campaign chair paid Hunter a considerable sum that allowed her to leave North Carolina and relocate to a multi-million dollar home in Santa  Barbara, Calif., which is the subject of a federal grand jury probe into possible illegal campaign payments, The National Enquirer pretty much had the sex scandal story to itself. It's unclear whether the Enquirer can get its submission to the Pulitzer committee by the February 1 deadline, but as Enquirer readers no-doubt know, the Pulitzer judges are in reality, hostile pod-sucking aliens from the planet Zebulon in human form, so the tabloid's chances of winning are slim anyway.

The Enquirer, which routinely engages in "checkbook journalism" by paying sources for stories, a practice eschewed (though sometimes followed) by the so-called mainstream traditional media, has a successful track record of scoops, including Rev. Jesse Jackson's "love child" story in 2001 and Rush Limbaugh's prescription drug woes story in 2003.

As for Sen. Edwards, his political platform may or may not be correct that economically there are "2 Americas," but there certainly is one special place in Hell for preening, pathological prevaricating, playboy politicians.