LOS ANGELES – Married TV heartthrobs Eric Dane and Rebecca Gayheart have filed a $1 million lawsuit against Gawker Media, claiming the parent company of blogs Fleshbot.com and Defamer.com “maliciously distributed” a four-minute segment of the now-infamous home video starring the naked couple and former Miss Teen USA Kari Ann Peniche.No sexual activity occurs in the segment posted online, but Dane (Grey’s Anatomy) and Gayheart (Ugly Betty, The Cleaner) reportedly were incensed that private moments lensed behind closed doors at Peniche’s apartment in 2008 were exposed for public amusement. Two days after the video’s Aug. 17 online debut, the couple filed for copyright protection on the entire 12-minute “motion picture,” now registered as “ED-RG-KAP Video by ED & RG.” Both Dane, 36, and Gayheart, 38, are credited as directors and cinematographers of the work.
According to The Smoking Gun, the nudie video represents Dane’s first turn as a director, although Gayheart holds the copyright on the 2001 film Me and Daphne, which she directed.
Gawker has declined to make formal comments about the lawsuit, but Publisher Nick Denton remarked on Twitter, “To quote the great Marty Singer — Eric Dane’s lawyer — if you don’t want a sex tape on the Internet, ‘Don’t make one!’”
Gayheart reportedly is pregnant with the couple’s first child.
