Los Angeles- A photographer presented a forged document to Cameron Diaz in a “blackmail’ attempt to get more than $3 million for topless photos he had taken of her 11 years earlier, a prosecutor told jurors Wednesday.
Defense attorney Mark Werksman countered that it was a “case about a rich and powerful movie star … seeking to crush and destroy (defendant) John Rutter’ and “forever bury’ embarrassing photographs without having to pay the photographer a cent.
Rutter, 42, of Venice is charged with one count each of attempted grand theft, forgery and perjury. A charge of attempted extortion against him was dropped before the case went to trial.
Rutter’s attorney countered that his client is “an innocent man’ who did not “knowingly or intentionally submit any forged release.” He said his client assumed the model release was a “valid and genuine one.”
Werksman said his client was “guilty of being a nice guy’ for giving Diaz the first opportunity to buy the photographs from the 1992 photo session at an abandoned warehouse in the City of Industry, at which “she was willing to literally expose herself in order to gain that exposure’ that she sought.
