Kournikova seeking damages in excess of $10
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Darren Rovell
ESPN
In a statement issued Tuesday under the headline "Penthouse Apologizes," the adult
magazine claims it was led to believe the pictures were genuinely of Kournikova.
"We deeply regret this unintentional error and offer heartfelt apologies to both women," the
statement said. "In over 30 years of publishing this magazine, we have never made an error
of anything approaching this magnitude. We can only say, 'We're sorry' to the two women."
"Their apology is as fake as the photos," Octagon spokesman David Schwab told ESPN.com
on Tuesday night.
Attorneys representing Anna Kournikova filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of the 20-year-old
Russian tennis star against the publishers of Penthouse Magazine.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claims the magazine featured a
13-photo spread of a topless woman the publication promoted as Kournikova, portraying the
tennis player in a false light, invading her privacy and defaming her name.
"This case concerns a magazine so desperate for circulation that it trumpeted to the world
a total fabrication that it was printing nude photographs of international tennis star Anna
Kournikova when, in reality, the photographs depicted someone else," the lawsuit states.
"(Penthouse) exploited and misappropriated Anna Kournikova's good and valuable name,
image and likeness in the basest, most humiliating way for its own crass commercial
purposes."
Kournikova's attorneys are seeking damages in excess of $10 million and demand the
magazine to destroy all plates and molds regarding the "Kournikova" article and photos.
Kournikova's lawsuit follows the lawsuit filed in U.S District Court in New York by Judith
Soltesz-Benetton, the woman who says the photos are of her and were taken about seven
years ago on a beach in Miami. Soltesz-Benetton, whose father-in-law is the famous fashion
designer Luciano Benetton, also seeks damages in excess of $10 million.
On Monday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin issued a temporary restraining order
against Penthouse that required the publication to cease distributing more copies and
putting the "Kournikova" pictures on the publication's Web site.
"The way Penthouse has used this shows me Penthouse doesn't really care whether it's true
or not, only whether it sells issues and get people to the Web site," Chin said.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
By Darren Rovell
ESPN
In a statement issued Tuesday under the headline "Penthouse Apologizes," the adult
magazine claims it was led to believe the pictures were genuinely of Kournikova.
"We deeply regret this unintentional error and offer heartfelt apologies to both women," the
statement said. "In over 30 years of publishing this magazine, we have never made an error
of anything approaching this magnitude. We can only say, 'We're sorry' to the two women."
"Their apology is as fake as the photos," Octagon spokesman David Schwab told ESPN.com
on Tuesday night.
Attorneys representing Anna Kournikova filed a lawsuit Tuesday on behalf of the 20-year-old
Russian tennis star against the publishers of Penthouse Magazine.
The suit, filed in the U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, claims the magazine featured a
13-photo spread of a topless woman the publication promoted as Kournikova, portraying the
tennis player in a false light, invading her privacy and defaming her name.
"This case concerns a magazine so desperate for circulation that it trumpeted to the world
a total fabrication that it was printing nude photographs of international tennis star Anna
Kournikova when, in reality, the photographs depicted someone else," the lawsuit states.
"(Penthouse) exploited and misappropriated Anna Kournikova's good and valuable name,
image and likeness in the basest, most humiliating way for its own crass commercial
purposes."
Kournikova's attorneys are seeking damages in excess of $10 million and demand the
magazine to destroy all plates and molds regarding the "Kournikova" article and photos.
Kournikova's lawsuit follows the lawsuit filed in U.S District Court in New York by Judith
Soltesz-Benetton, the woman who says the photos are of her and were taken about seven
years ago on a beach in Miami. Soltesz-Benetton, whose father-in-law is the famous fashion
designer Luciano Benetton, also seeks damages in excess of $10 million.
On Monday afternoon, U.S. District Judge Denny Chin issued a temporary restraining order
against Penthouse that required the publication to cease distributing more copies and
putting the "Kournikova" pictures on the publication's Web site.
"The way Penthouse has used this shows me Penthouse doesn't really care whether it's true
or not, only whether it sells issues and get people to the Web site," Chin said.
