A couple from the New Orleans metro area who brought their infant son along on a weekend shopping mall pilgrimage have filed a lawsuit against Jessica Simpson, OK! magazine, and a local photography business, claiming that a photo taken of their son was published in OK! as if to suggest that he was actually Simpson’s baby. The photo was published in the April 16, 2012 issue of OK!, a publication that boasts a circulation of 4.5 million and sees 7.3 million clickety-clicks on its website every month.
That wide audience, according to an attorney representing the infant’s father, Christopher Hurst of Jefferson Parish, and mother, Tracy Gregory of Lafourche Parish, is what prompted the couple to sue for invasion of privacy and emotional distress (damages, according to the Times-Picayune, appear to be no more than $75,000). Although attorneys representing Simpson, OK! owner American Media Inc.and Getty Images, whose subsidiary sold the photograph have yet to respond to the lawsuit, the couple’s attorney Michael North has pointed out that the business of celebrity baby photographs is pretty huge: he alleges that a competing celebrity rag paid Simpson $800,000 for first dibs on actual baby pictures, and that OK! has paid “multiple millions of dollars” to celebrities for first rights to publish photos of their spawn.
So how did Jessica Simpson turn into the Easter Bunny of stolen children at Metairie’s Lakeside Shopping Center? Hurst claims several people standing in line to meet Simpson next to him and his teenage daughter encourage him to hand his infant son over to Simpson for a picture. Reluctantly, he did so, and, before he knew what was happening, a stealth photographer leaped out of the fake plants to take a picture. The whole celebrity-news world is, apparently, baby crazy. [Times-Pic]
- But enough about baby-photo thievery! John Malkovich used his scarf to stop some guy in Toronto from bleeding to death from a grisly wound to his carotoid artery. Of course, it was probably someone using John Malkovich’s body as an avatar, but still — pretty heroic, John Cusack. [CBC]
- A woman egged Simon Cowell‘s clavicle fuzz during the finale of Britain’s Got Talent. [E!]
- Jake Gyllenhaal delighted the lonely dorm bros who watch the Spike TV Guys Choice Awards by dressing up as The Dude and posing with Jeff Bridges. [Just Jared]
- The awesome welfare party is apparently over for Nadya Suleman — the Los Angeles County Department of Welfare Fraud Prevention and Investigation learned that the Octomom was collecting welfare in 2012, the same year she grossed more than $200,000. TMZ is ecstatic, obviously. [TMZ]
- Paris Jackson was transferred to UCLA Medical Center (the same hospital her father was taken to after going into cardiac arrest back in 2009) Saturday evening, meaning that her 72-hour psychiatric hold has effectively ended after an apparent suicide attempt Wednesday morning. [TMZ]
- Justin Bieber‘s bodyguards have yet again been accused of getting fresh with someone. [TMZ]
- The real-life Erin Brockovich reportedly got wasted and drove her boat around Lake Mead. She was subsequently arrested in Vegas. [TMZ]
- Kristen Stewart got coffee. Presumably, she also drank it, though we can’t be certain of that. [Us]
- Sweden’s Princess Madeleine married a New York Banker named Christopher O’Neill Saturday in Stockholm. [CBS]
- Kim Kardashian called Kanye West the love of her life on his birthday. Also, no ice cream cake. Sorry, Love of Kim Kardashian’s life Kanye — Carvel couldn’t fit all of that onto a single cake. [Us]
Image via AP, Chris Pizzello