Woman Sues MTV Over Bathroom-Stall Photo

A 22-year-old San Francisco woman has sued MTV Networks and parent Viacom Inc., alleging invasion of privacy after her image appeared on a Sunset Boulevard billboard, in People and Rolling Stone magazines and on an episode of the MTV program, “Bands on the Run.”

Dana Lynn Daly contends that a video crew followed her into the women’s bathroom of a nightclub and taped her as she kissed a male band member in a bathroom stall. The footage was featured on the April premiere of “Bands on the Run.” A image of a stunned Daly was included in a photo montage used in advertisements for the show on billboards and magazines.

“The intrusion was into a place which was private and entitled to be private in that it involved an unconsented invasion into the stall in a washroom,” says the lawsuit, which was filed last week in San Francisco Superior Court.

The suit also alleges the program libeled Daly because it “falsely implied that [Daly] had had sexual relations with a band member featured in the program.”

Daly’s San Francisco attorney, R. Michael Lieberman, said MTV producers presented a drunk Daly with a consent form to sign. “She was intoxicated,” Lieberman said. “MTV should not have presented a consent form to her or insist that she sign it when she was intoxicated.”

A MTV spokeswoman said the network would not comment on the litigation.