Kournikova Sues Penthouse

Tennis player Anna Kournikova filed suit against General Media Communications Inc., the parent company of Penthouse magazine, on Tuesday in U.S. District Court in Los Angeles, according to her representatives. The complaint cites defamation, false light invasion of privacy, misappropriation of identity and various other violations of Kournikova’s rights, and seeks damages of more than $10 million.

Penthouse last month published a multi-page spread of photos of the tennis player, including topless pictures purporting to be of Kournikova. Kournikova’s representatives denied that the topless photos were of her and threatened a suit. On Monday, Judith E. Soltesz-Benetton, the daughter-in-law of fashion designer Luciano Benetton, sued Penthouse, saying the topless photos supposedly of Kournikova were actually pictures taken of her seven years ago, without her knowledge. U.S. District Judge Denny Chin ordered the magazine to halt distribution of its June issue.

Penthouse issued a statement Tuesday: “We deeply regret this unintentional error and offer our heartfelt apologies to both women.... We were wrong. In over 30 years of publishing this magazine, we have never made an error of anything approaching this magnitude.”

The Kournikova camp was not mollified.

“The apology is as false as the photos,” said David Schwab, spokesman for Octagon, the management agency representing Kournikova.