Hoffman Says Magazine Threatened Reputation

Actor Dustin Hoffman, who last week won a $1.5-million lawsuit against Los Angeles Magazine, said Monday that the image used by the magazine could have damaged his reputation.

“The industry knows there’s a certain plane of entertainers who don’t do American commercials,” Hoffman, 61, said at a news conference in Century City. “I would have guessed if it was someone else, ‘Why is that person doing commercials? Has it come to that?’ ”

A federal judge last week ordered the magazine to pay Hoffman compensatory damages because it published a computer-altered photo of him in a woman’s evening gown and high heels without the actor’s consent.

Hoffman sued the magazine and its parent, Capital Cities ABC Inc., now part of the Walt Disney Co., over the March 1997 spread, which featured several actors wearing the latest spring fashions. The photo that angered Hoffman was a head shot taken from his appearance in drag in the movie “Tootsie” attached to a picture of a male model wearing a silk evening gown and high heels. The caption next to the computer-generated photo read, “Dustin Hoffman isn’t a drag in a butter-colored silk gown by Richard Tyler and Ralph Lauren heels.”

“When a comedian impersonates you, it’s flattering, but my face was used to sell products,” Hoffman said Monday.

Hoffman did not reveal his plans for the money he was awarded. He will return to court Thursday, when punitive damages will be considered.