ANNA NICOLE’S SURGEON BANNED FROM SELLING FOOTAGE
A Los Angeles judge has barred ANNA NICOLE SMITH’s plastic surgeon from attempting to sell a videotape showing the late Playboy model undergoing a breast operation.
Dr. Gerald Wayne Johnson reportedly filmed a breast augmentation procedure he carried out on Smith in 1994 without the star’s permission.
After her death from an accidental drug overdose in February 2007, Johnson tried to sell the footage to a Los Angeles-based memorabilia dealer.
Smith’s longtime partner and lawyer Howard K. Stern - the executor of the model’s estate - filed suit against the doctor last year to prevent Johnson and his wife Alana from further distributing the tapes.
Johnson claimed that he obtains all of his patients’ permissions to film their operations prior to their surgery, on the condition that the footage is kept private “during a patients’ lifetime”.
He alleged that this confidentiality agreement was deemed void when Smith lost her life in Florida, aged 39.
But Los Angeles County Superior Court Judge Mitchell Beckloff subsequently ruled in Stern’s favour and issued a number of preliminary injunctions in the months after Johnson was initially sued.
And on Friday (03Oct08), Beckloff issued a permanent injunction against the Texan doctor, preventing him from attempting to sell, distribute or disseminate the videotape at any point in the foreseeable future.
Further details of the settlement were unavailable as WENN went to press.
Movie & Entertainment News provided by World Entertainment News Network (www.wenn.com)
Related News:
