'Paparazzi gave Heath drugs'
2008-04-12 14:40
Los Angeles - A lawsuit filed on Friday against a Hollywood photo agency says two of its paparazzi supplied actor Heath Ledger with cocaine so they
could secretly videotape him snorting the drug in a hotel room
two years ago.
The suit says footage of the Ledger encounter, a portion of
which aired briefly on two US television shows days after his
death in January - prompting an outcry in Hollywood - was
sold to media outlets around the world, some in Britain and his
native Australia.
The lawsuit claims the video has generated more than $1m in revenues that should be forfeited under a California state law that requires paparazzi to disgorge any profits obtained through illegal activity.
Best known for his Oscar-nominated role as a conflicted gay
cowboy in the 2005 movie Brokeback Mountain, Ledger died of
an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in his New York
apartment on January 22.
The suit accuses the Los Angeles-area Splash News & Picture
Agency of paying for cocaine that was allegedly used in 2006 by
two of its photographers to entice Ledger, widely reported to
have struggled with substance abuse, into being surreptitiously
filmed using drugs.
'This is bad stuff'
The incident occurred on January 29, 2006, at the Chateau
Marmont hotel on Hollywood's Sunset Strip, where Ledger was
attending an "after-party" following his winning of the Screen
Actors Guild Award for Brokeback Mountain.
"This is bad stuff. You don't give drug addicts drugs so
you can then tape them," said Douglas Johnson, an attorney for
the plaintiff, who is named in the suit only as Jane Doe, a
former freelance reporter for People magazine.
The suit describes her as an unwitting accomplice of the
two photographers, one of whom she was dating at the time.
The grainy video, which surfaced on numerous websites in
recent months, does not show Ledger using drugs, but he can be
heard admitting to smoking marijuana in the past.
The suit seeks damages for fraud and invasion of privacy,
claiming the alleged scheme "damages her reputation by the
inference that she somehow participated with paparazzi in the
drugging and hidden taping of Mr Ledger".