‘’’I can almost hear her voice during the day when I am making decisions for Dannielynn,” Larry says’’’’
Turn the volume up on the videos you play dummy.
HOUSTON — Anna Nicole Smith’s mother is suing a Houston television station, CBS Studios Inc., and Howard K. Stern, the late Playboy playmate’s lawyer and former companion.
In her libel lawsuit, Virgie Arthur says Stern arranged an Entertainment Tonight interview in which Smith said her mother was complicit in sexual and physical abuse Smith suffered as a child.
The program aired in Houston on Feb. 14 on KPRC Channel 2, an NBC affiliate. CBS Studios produces the program.
Smith died a week before the program aired.
The lawsuit claims that Stern isolated Smith from her family, and controlled who Smith could see and what public appearances she could make. After Arthur expressed concern over the safety of Smith and her daughter, Dannielynn, Stern cut off contact with Arthur and retaliated by arranging the Entertainment Tonight interview, the lawsuit says.
In the interview, the lawsuit alleges, Smith is “shown speaking the words, “All the beatings and whippings. That’s my mother. That’s my mom.” Onscreen graphics of the words “hatred” and “allegations of abuse” were shown as Smith talked.
Arthur, who lives in Montgomery County just north of Houston, also says Stern, KPRC and CBS subjected her to public hatred and contempt by injuring her reputation. Before the interview aired, the lawsuit claims, Arthur “enjoyed a reputation as a caring, honest and law-abiding retired peace officer.”
In court documents, CBS Studios denied all the allegations in the lawsuit, saying Arthur had been the subject of other critical reports that had already affected her reputation.
KPRC also filed court documents denying the allegations. It maintained that the station was improperly included in the lawsuit because it acted as a “mere conduit” that aired a program obtained from a satellite feed.
Lin Wood, the attorney for Stern, called the lawsuit frivolous and an attempt by Arthur “to harass and intimidate” his client.
“Anna Nicole Smith’s comments in the broadcast at issue were true and were her comments only,” said Wood. “Mr. Stern and the other defendants had absolutely nothing whatsoever to do with those comments.”
Arthur originally filed the lawsuit last month in Harris County district court, but it was transferred this week to Houston federal court.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/ap/tx/5283112.html