Check out our new advertisers www.cammansion.com and www.eruptionxl.com Follow AdultFYI at twitter@adultfyi1; Follow Gene Ross at twitter@GeneRoss3
In a Tarot reading I did on Vette months before this whole mess began, I wrote: "I also get the feeling there’s going to be a ruling on some legal issue."
LOS ANGELES — Gee, maybe it's a good thing that Marc Bell, the CEO of AdultFriedFinder, is stepping down because a scandal like this can come back and hurt your chances running for political office and all that.
Today it was reported by both AVN and XBiz that Vickey Vette is suing Bell's soon-to-be former company for improper use of her photo.
Like the hooker ads so often seen in the weeklies featuring photos of porn stars as bait and switch devices, Vette found her photo identified as "Groovy232"—in an AdultFriendFinder online dating ad. The ad claimed that she was one of the "hot girls" by whom subscribers could "get laid... near Studio City [CA]" or whatever locale an unwary subscriber logged in from.
As a result, Vette, through her production company FM Financial, sued AdultFriendFinder (aka Various, Inc.) as well as Video Bliss, the company that now owns Danni's Hard Drive and Danni.com, and 50 "John Doe" defendants for unauthorized use of her image in the ads and other causes of action related to that unauthorized use.
Last week a Los Angeles Superior Court judge refused to dismiss Vette's claims that her image was illegally used to market AdultFriendFinder in banner ads and now the suit is proceeding.
In the suit which was filed last month, Vette charged that she first viewed an unauthorized photo of herself in an AdultFriendFinder ad on DumpsterSluts.com.
Other pictures of Vette later turned up on AdultFriendFinder's affiliate program site, the complaint further said.
"Defendants.... have misappropriated Vette's likeness by stating and implying that Ms. Vette is a member of Defendant Adultfriendfinder's site, such that users may be able to meet Ms. Vette through membership in Defendant Adultfriendfinder's site," the complaint continues.
The affiliate program site, the suit further says, "is designed to mislead the general public into thinking that Vette is somehow signed up to AdultFriendFinder in their area under the website handle of 'Groovy232 21/F.'"
But "Vette is not 21 years old, has never signed up to AdultFriendFinder and at no time gave permission to Defendants to use her name and likeness worldwide through affiliate webmasters to trick potential customers or members of the general public into thinking that she is available for 'dates' in their city, county or state, including Los Angeles, California," the suit further adds.
It further charges that AdultFriendFinder "is engaging in fraudulent and deceitful advertising and/or business practices."
Referring specifically to Video Bliss, the current owner of Danni's Hard Drive and Danni.com (and according to the Answer to the complaint, itself owned by FriendFinder Networks, Inc., as is Various, Inc.), the complaint charges that its then-employee, photographer Francisco Guerra, assured Vette that the photographs that Vette agreed to allow Guerra to take of her back in 2006 "would not be used for other purposes" than a film then entitled Vicky Vette Photo Shoots.
Vette charges that the Danni's defendants "intended to license out Vette's likeness to third parties unrelated to Danni's," and that she was deceived into thinking otherwise, or in the alternative that they negligently allowed such unauthorized use to occur.
Vette/FM are seeking unspecified damages to be determined at trial based on the evidence presented. Vette even offers to give back her modeling fee if Danni's agrees to "pay over to Plaintiff the full amount of monies due for the improper use of Plaintiff's likeness."
However, under the law, since the suit was filed as a "limited civil case," it appears that Vette's damages cannot exceed $25,000 plus interest and attorney fees.
AVN goes on to report that "an informed source" said Vette and Various were on the verge of a settlement at one point since the complaint was filed on June 8, 2011, but for unknown reasons the discussions fell through. On September 21, 2011 attorney Ira Rothken filed an Answer to the complaint on behalf of Various, Inc..
Vette told XBiz that AdultFriendFinder had tried to get the case dismissed by offering Danni.com model releases to the court.
"I shot for Danni.com to be their Girl of the Month — not to be used as bait in AdultFriendFinder," Vette said.
"No, I'm not Groovy232 ... and no I am not in El Paso, Tucson, Santa Clarita or anywhere else seeking a casual fling in your neighborhood."
Beverly Hills attorney Michael Kernan is representing Vette.
