Results tagged “damages”

The embattled community organizing group ACORN is filing a lawsuit today in Maryland District Court, accusing individuals behind an embarrassing series of hidden camera videos of violating state law by recording employees' conversations without permission. Similar to the videos recorded in ACORN's Brooklyn offices, the Maryland video shows workers giving inappropriate advice to two filmmakers (left) posing as prostitute and pimp seeking assistance in getting a house for a brothel. Alan Schwartz, general counsel for Acorn, accused the fake pimp, James O’Keefe, of "trying to destroy an organization whose principal purpose is to help poor people."

A Manhattan lawyer blames Delta Airlines for ruining his mother's 80th birthday celebration and is suing the airline for $1 million. Richard Roth says a Delta employee made them miss a flight to South America and losing their luggage for days, telling the Post, "It was the most outrageous experience I've ever had in my life. It was an absolute disaster. One catastrophe after another."

The last time we checked in with the latest flock of Next Top Models they were posing as homeless women, with homeless women. Seems they disrespected their $6 million Tribeca loft, too...turning it into a hot mess.

Due to the Writer's Guild of America strike, Hollywood's party, the Golden Globes Awards were transformed from a boozy, fun dinner party to a press conference where presenters from entertainment programs like Extra! and E! News got to announce the winners. Yes, it was as painful as it sounded (Giuliana Rancic, it's not about you); many said they couldn't believe they were announcing the winners but said they would prefer it with the stars. Inside Edition's Jim Moret struck a classy note when he acknowledged the Hollywood Foreign Association (the organization that doles out the Golden Globes) President Jorge Camara.

Early this morning Hayden Panettiere and other Hollywood elite looked ready to hit the town for a night out even though it was 5:30am. They were announcing this year's Golden Globe nominees, often a good sign for who will be nominated for that other gold statue. All in all New York-based shows and movies fared well as the envelopes were opened sheets of paper were read from. 30 Rock (Best Television Series, Comedy or Musical...

A look at some noteworthy television this week:

A note to anyone writing under a pseudonym: Don't let the pseudonym become larger than life. After deliberating for a couple hours, a jury came to a verdict in a film production company's lawsuit against Laura Albert, who wrote novels under the name JT Leroy. A tipster at the Federal Court just gave us the scoop:

Jury verdict in: Laura Albert and Underdogs Inc. are both liable for fraud and for breach of contract. Damages: $110,000 for economic damages, $6,500 for punitive.

For a few years, Albert had forwarded the illusion that JT Leroy was an actual person by having her ex-boyfriend's sister pose as "JT Leroy," the troubled son of a prostitute whose hard life gave inspiration to "his" books. Antidote Films had claimed that because the contract was with JT Leroy, not Albert, and since JT Leroy never existed, the contract should be found void (thanks, Frankenstein) and Albert should return the $45,000 in rights money. Albert, whose mother testified about her psychological problems, gave riveting testimony about her own difficult childhood, how she didn't want to write under her own name and how she channeled the "JT Leroy" persona to write.

The Nor'easter that drenched - and flooded - the Northeast with inches of rain has headed out. Many homes in the area were flooded and pummeled by winds; the NY Times adds that though the storm is gone, rivers are "still rising, swollen by the runoff of record rains." Residents in some suburbs were evacuated and thousands of people are without power: NY Governor Spitzer noted the devastation, while acting NJ Governor Richard Codey said that NJ "continues to operate under a state of emergency." Damages are expected to be in the hundreds of millions of dollars.