YNOT – A mainstream television and film actress has sued an adult dating agency with a remarkably similar name, claiming the website’s promotion of marital infidelity is harming the actress’ reputation and public image.Ashley Madison Myrick, once romantically linked with actor James Woods, alleges in her lawsuit that AshleyMadison.com and AshleyMadisonBio.com cause her shame and embarrassment by enabling sexual affairs. In addition, Myrick claims AshleyMadisonBio.com uses her photographic likeness without permission.
The Ashley Madison Agency filed a $1 million countersuit saying it doesn’t own the domain AshleyMadisonBio.com — allegedly a fansite devoted to the actress; now mysteriously off the web. In addition, AshleyMadison.com has existed since 2002, whereas Myrick adopted her stage name in 2005. The agency also claims Myrick filed the lawsuit in order to raise her professional profile. Implicit in the agency’s filing is that Myrick does not live up to AshleyMadison.com’s rigorous standards for membership, so why would the company want to exploit her?
“The defendant’s public persona outside of her [on-screen] roles is negatively portrayed in the media,” according to documents filed with the court. “In particular, the defendant has been portrayed in the media as being, among other things, an egregious publicity-seeker, including reportedly acting in a heartless, inappropriate and insensitive manner at a family funeral of her famous one-time relationship partner [Woods’ brother Michael, who died in 2006] in order to promote herself to [Hollywood] industry insiders also attending the funeral. Not only is her use of Ashley Madison as a stage name an attempt to inappropriately garner goodwill to support her acting career, but her public antics serve to dilute and depreciate the goodwill inherent in the Ashley Madison trademarks.”
Myrick wants the agency to stop using her name.
