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| Fifth Column |
| Bab’s get bonked by Judge |
| 2003-12-04 |
| A Los Angeles judge Wednesday dismissed a $10 million lawsuit filed by Barbra Streisand against a multimillionaire who posted photos of her Malibu estate on a Web site documenting erosion along the California coast. And that erosion includes Bab’s utopian dacha estate. A longtime environmentalist, Streisand sued Kenneth Adelman in May accusing him of violating California’s anti-paparazzi law and her privacy rights. She demanded that Adelman remove her name and the photo of her estate from his Web site, (http://www.californiacoastline.org). Because people should not see ?squalor? she lives in? But Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Allan Goodman Wednesday ruled that the diva’s lawsuit chilled Adelman’s free speech rights on a matter of public concern, and ordered the ’’Yentl’’ star to pay his legal bills. That was just too funny. The judge noted that Adelman had not tried to photograph Streisand personally and had not even known that he was capturing her estate on film when he snapped the photos from 2,700 feet away. Goodman also noted that similar photos were published in magazines and on the Internet before Adelman took his aerial shots. Streisand’s attorney could not immediately be reached for comment. In a message posted on his Web site, Adelman said the ruling sends a message to ’’a celebrity who believes her personal interests are more important (than) the public’s constitutional right to free speech.’’ Adelman, 40, retired after selling his TGV software company to Cisco Systems for $115 million in 1996 and Network Alchemy to Nokia for $335 million four years later. He and his wife then began an aerial photography survey of the 1,150-mile California coastline using his helicopter and a high-resolution camera. It’s environmentalist versus quasi-environmentalist! Bab’s supports environmental projects, just not on (or near) her dacha. When the Politburo of Hollywood finds out about a standing member being hassled, someone will be off to the gulag. Making Comrade Bab’s pay for this frivolous lawsuit is just icing on the cake. Das Vidayna Comrade Bab’s! |
| Posted by:Cyber Sarge (VRWC CA Chapter) |
| #2 mojo---I think that the judge was covering his ass with 46 pages of detail in order to avoid having his ruling overturned by some appeals court. |
| Posted by: Alaska Paul 2003-12-4 10:28:38 PM |
| #1 Hmph. The judge is awfully wordy. 46 pages to say, basically, "siddown and shuddup"? I think that's a record... |
| Posted by: mojo 2003-12-4 1:57:23 PM |