Posted on 02/28/2002 2:54:24 PM PST by Temple Owl
Wild Party Girls' video maker must pay SWT student
$5 million awarded to topless young woman see in humiliating TV ads
By Jeremy Schwartz
American-Statesman Staff
SAN MARCOS -- Southwest Texas State University student Amber Kulhanek went to spring break in 2000 on South Padre Island for her 21st birthday and ended up taking off her shirt at a wet T-shirt contest in Mexico.
A few months later Kulhanek saw herself in national ads for a "Wild Party Girls" video on the E! cable network, a red strip proclaiming "Too hot for TV" stamped across her naked breasts. Kulhanek, now a senior, said she was mortified when friends and relatives saw the ad and strangers began asking her to take her top off.
Claiming she had been targeted by the video's makers, who she said plied her with alcohol at a Matamoros bar, Kulhanek sued E! and the Florida-based Arco Media Group Inc. for invasion of privacy and emotional distress.
On Wednesday morning, Kulhanek won what her lawyer says is the first judgment of its kind against the video makers and earned a $5 million default judgment in the 22nd District Court. Lawyers for Arco Media never officially responded to the lawsuit and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Videos such as "Wild Party Girls Spring Break Uncensored" are sold by several companies through late night TV ads and the Internet and often feature drunken college women exposing themselves at Mardi Gras and spring break celebrations.
Kulhanek's lawyer, David Sergi, said Arco Media representatives conspired with bartenders to get pretty young women to drink alcohol and convince them to enter wet T-shirt contests. "We're hoping this sends a message to these pariahs that they can't booze (the women) up . . . so they really can't give consent," Sergi said. "It's really like rape."
Kulhanek, who never signed a consent form, said she couldn't believe it when she saw herself on television. "I was just really shocked and humiliated," she said. "I just really hope they can learn to leave people alone."
Sergi said Kulhanek was put in a barbershop type chair where liquor was poured down her throat.
"Before she knew it, she was dead drunk," he said. "The people from Arco were egging her on to enter the wet T-shirt contest. The next thing she knew she was in front of a bunch of people with her shirt off."
Sergi said that although Kulhanek did not end up in the actual video, her image was in ads that ran for several month on E! and on the "Wild Party Girls" Internet site, where she could be found uncensored in the members section. The ads and the Internet picture have since been removed.
According to court documents, Kulhanek withdrew from classes at SWT in the fall of 2000 and suffered from insomnia as a result of the ads. Sergi said she has re-enrolled and is set to graduate this spring.
Kulhanek will continue her lawsuit against E!, which she claims worked with Arco Media to target young women and shared revenue from the tapes. E! lawyer Dale Jefferson said the entertainment network simply sold airtime to Arco Media. "Do we have a duty to censor advertisements wholly produced by third parties? We believe the legal answer to that legal question is no," he said.
Wednesday's default judgment calls for Kulhanek to receive $2.5 million for emotional distress, $2.5 million for her privacy claim and $10,000 in attorney's fees. Sergi said Kulhanek plans to donate part of her judgment to a women's shelter.
Sergi said he believes the judgment is the first against the makers of videos with nude college women.
In September, a Florida State University student who bared her breasts at Mardi Gras sued the makers of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series claiming invasion of privacy.
A lawyer for the video producers told The Associated Press that privacy protection does not extend to people who take their clothes off in public and especially not at large events where many people have video cameras.
Wait a minute. She's in a public place and takes her top off. Doesn't anyone have the right to take pictures? Does the law require anyone who is videotaped to be paid for the tape to become public and/or must give permission? Or is it the fact that someone is making money from the tape? Isn't she responsible for getting drunk?
But that's not her argument:
Wednesday's default judgment calls for Kulhanek to receive $2.5 million for emotional distress, $2.5 million for her privacy claim and $10,000 in attorney's fees. Sergi said Kulhanek plans to donate part of her judgment to a women's shelter.
Sound to me like she's just embarrassed her relatives know how she acts now.
The deep and alarming folds of her skin moved in AFSCME time, like two tectonic plates or a sea slug mating dance in super-slo motion. My feelings and thoughts were clear: confusion, nausea and exit strategy.
If you ever stand her up could you give her a little shake and see if my David Hasselhoff money clip falls out from somewhere?.
Yeah, I can see the invasion of privacy...
WHOOOOAAAAAA!!!!! You got a link to some statute???? Gholly, that's pretty broad. And, not just with pretty broads, either.
Dumb move. But I expect this will get overturned on appeal.
I've crunched numbers and broken down tape and sacrificed livestock to my Pagan Gods... and I don't think "The Human Couch" is a complimentary nickname!
Default judgement.
Bye-bye. They're gone baby. Flyin like a bird.
Hope she doesn't get her panties in a knot waitin to collect.
Hahahahahahahah!!!!!
What a heaping load of B.S... Most of the girls in those videos are sorority sluts. This one just happens to be $5M richer...
Yeah, that's what they do in Mexican bars... I've been to T.J... They do that to men too. Hold your head back while blowing a whistle and pouring tequila down your throat. Then you get the bill.
I think that you have to get permission to broadcast/sell it. I remember hearing that the cops show always had to get the crooks to sign off in order to show their faces.
WASHINGTON, DC (DPI) - In a revelation sending shockwaves throughout college campuses across the country, the occurrence of girls gone wild has dropped by a shocking 20 percent since September 11, a new report concluded. The report, a project of a non-profit coalition, notes severe reductions in flashing and jiggling among drunken sorority girls. Bush Administration officials, upon hearing of the report, called for a $5-billion bailout for the voyeur-camera industry, and issued a statement calling upon hot wild coeds to do their part to return the nation to its pre-attack free-for-all. Despite the recent drop, experts expect a slight increase in girls going wild 47 days before the first Sunday after the Spring Equinox.
(Reported by Stuart Johnson)
This is easy. The corporation sued likely has no assets. They will just declare bankrupcy. I can't imagine that she will ever get a penny from the suit. I expect it is just PR. As for 'this is just like rape' -- LOL!
If a trial lawyer can find enough fat wobbling black women employed at either "San Marcos University" the "San Marcos Post office", the "City of San Marcos", the county of "San Marcos", the "San Marcos school district", and three lesbian professors from San Marcos University's MSHGLTTBNKW Studies Department.
Congressman Billybob
When those pictures are used commercially without the consent of the persons in them, the folks in the pictures are entitled to damages, et al. You can't just use folks without paying them for their labor, and in this case, ....... well, it could be called labor.
Of course, it could have been worse.
Not necessarily. I don't know about Texas law, but in most places, pictures taken in public places need no releases. They are the sole property of the photographer. Subjects in the photos are thus not entitled to any compensation. In fact, I'm not even sure that Texas law applies here. The pictures were taken in Mexico.
Bottom line: She got drunk. She got stupid. She got so stupid that she started shaking her hoohaws around the bar. She got caught. Now she's steamed.
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