Britney Spears sues 'Us Weekly' over sex tape article

Tuesday, December 20th 2005, 6:13 am

By: News On 6

LOS ANGELES (AP) _ Britney Spears filed a $20 million libel lawsuit Monday against celebrity magazine Us Weekly, charging it published a false story reporting she and her husband, Kevin Federline, made a sex tape and were worried about its release.

The lawsuit seeks $10 million in libel damages and $10 million for misappropriating Spears' name and image to promote sales. It also seeks unspecified punitive damages.

A telephone call made after business hours Monday to the magazine's Los Angeles office was not immediately returned.

According to the lawsuit, the article was published Oct. 17 in the magazine's ``Hot Stuff'' column and claimed that Spears and her husband feared the release of a secret sex tape, which they had viewed with their estate planning lawyers.

The article stated that Spears gave a copy of the tape to the lawyers on Sept. 30 and that she and her husband were ``acting goofy the whole time'' while watching the video.

``There was no laughter, disgust or goofy behavior while watching the video in the company of lawyers because they did not watch any video, and because there is no such video,'' the lawsuit stated.

According to the lawsuit, Spears went to court after Us Weekly refused her request for a retraction, saying it stood by the story.

Spears and Us Weekly also tangled in February after the magazine published pictures of her October honeymoon in the Fiji Islands.

She issued a statement criticizing the magazine for publishing photos taken by resort staff members. Us Weekly responded with its own statement saying Spears had sold pictures of her wedding and stepdaughter to publications.

``Could it be that Britney is seeing red after not seeing the green from these photos?'' Us Weekly asked. ``Britney Spears should start a magazine if she'd like to dictate her own coverage.''