Blogger sued over topless Aniston photo

Jennifer Aniston poses at the People's Choice Awards on Tuesday, Jan. 9, 2007, in Los Angeles. A Hollywood movie studio filed a lawsuit claiming gossip blogger Perez Hilton posted a stolen topless photograph of Aniston on the Web. (AP Photo/Reed Saxon-File) Email Photo Print Photo

LOS ANGELES - A Hollywood movie studio filed a lawsuit claiming gossip blogger Perez Hilton posted a stolen topless photograph of Jennifer Aniston on the Web.

Universal City Studios Productions LLLP filed the suit Tuesday claiming the stolen image was posted on the perezhilton Internet site by Mario Lavandeira, aka Hilton.

The picture was allegedly "misappropriated and illegally copied" during production or post-production of the 2006 romantic comedy hit "The Break-Up," starring the actress and Vince Vaughn, the suit said.

The shot of Aniston, 38, was not included in the final version of the movie, which earned more than $118 million at the box office.

The lawsuit, claiming copyright infringement and filed in U.S. District Court, said Lavandeira "posted all or parts of the stolen footage from the motion picture on his Web site."

The suit seeks an injunction barring further distribution of the picture and requests a court order "directing the U.S. Marshal to seize" the copyrighted material from the 28-year-old blogger.

There was no response to an e-mail message to Lavandeira seeking comment on the suit.

The complaint demanded a jury trial and monetary damages to be determined by the court.

Last September, Aniston and celebrity photographer Peter Brandt settled a lawsuit regarding topless photos Brandt shot of the actress in late 2005.

"It's a confidential settlement," Aniston attorney Jay Lavely said. "The matter was amicably resolved."

Aniston had sued Brandt in December 2005, claiming he invaded her privacy by using a telephoto lens to photograph her inside her home when she was topless or partly dressed.

She alleged in the lawsuit that Brandt used "invasive, intrusive and unlawful measures" to capture the images. Brandt said he took the photos while standing on a public street about 300 yards away from Aniston's home.

Did Jen Aniston Find Love on the 'Dirt' Set?

Rumors are running rampant through Hollywood that the sexiest single girl in town may have a new male friend!

Insiders are buzzing that Jennifer Aniston is dating again, and it all started on her best friend, Courteney Cox Arquette's, TV show "Dirt."

Sources report that after Jen filmed her upcoming appearance (with includes a much talked about smooch with her best gal pal), she started getting cozy with a cameraman who works on the show after he asked her out.

One reports says even goes to say Jen and the cam man have been dating for several weeks.

But on Tuesday, here's what Jen told "Extra" about the rumors: NOT TRUE!

What Angelina Jolie Could Encounter at the Council on Foreign Relations

During a week when a former vice presidential candidate and policy wonk strode into the Kodak Theatre and won an Academy Award, it is only fitting that a famous actress may walk through the door of a prestigious policy institute in New York. Actress Angelina Jolie, another Oscar winner, has been nominated to join the Council on Foreign Relations, an elite uptown club of policy mavens.

If approved, the star of "Tomb Raider" will join the likes of Alexander Haig, Brent Scowcroft, and Henry Kissinger at the august organization, which may be loosening its straight-laced image a tiny bit.

The brunette bombshell will add star power to a group more used to hushed halls and high-brow discussion in mahogany-paneled drawing rooms than Hollywood red carpets and velvet ropes.

To be sure, Warren Beatty, Michael Douglas, and Ron Silver are already among the group's members, who are drawn from the echelons of business and public sectors, law government, journalism, nonprofit, and the academy. But no actresses appear among the roster of more than 4,000 members, though Glenn Close has attended briefings.

"Will members stare? You bet," the founder of Public Affairs Books, Peter Osnos, said. He said the definition of the establishment has clearly changed. There were many ways to qualify for the Council, and being a humanitarian was certainly one of them

Ms. Jolie grew aware of refugee crises while filming in Cambodia and has since visited more than 20 countries as a goodwill ambassador for the U.N. High Commissioner of Refugees. A member of the council, Noel Lateef, said Ms. Jolie is someone who has a demonstrated interest in international affairs.

What might she wear at the council, whose dress code requires "business attire?" Perhaps the traditional suit she wore in an advertisement for the fashion label St. John. She may not show too many of her tattoos, though the one that reads "know your rights" could relate to policy.

Describing two layouts in Vogue, the senior features editor at Style.com, Laird Borrelli, said Ms. Jolie wore off-the-shoulder, flowing dresses that were "Grecian" and "goddess-y."

"She has a certain panache," Mr. Lateef, who is also the president of the Foreign Policy Association, said. "There's no doubt she will add to the glitter of the events." Newsweek's editor, Jon Meacham, concurred: "I think it is safe to say that Ms. Jolie would indeed add a certain élan to meetings – though multilateralism has its own kind of sex appeal."

"She has been nominated for term membership. The council is considering her nomination," a spokeswoman for the council told The New York Sun. Term memberships are five-year stints for those under age 36. The nomination will be considered at the council's next board of directors meeting, the spokeswoman said. If accepted, she may then apply for full membership at the end of her term membership.

Mr. Lateef said the council has a careful selection process and those nominated have already been vetted. The council was begun in 1921. Prominent members included Elihu Root, Averell Harriman, and John Foster Dulles. In 1922, the council launched its flagship quarterly, Foreign Affairs. Today, women comprise about a quarter of the council's membership.

Walking up the marble staircase to the council's traditional second-floor rooms, the actress might encounter journalists (Brokaw, Rather, Couric, Walters) or a gaggle of university presidents (Sexton, Brademas, Oliva, Bollinger, Rupp, Sovern). She could chat about banking with Felix Rohatyn, art with Tom Krens or Glenn Lowry, or politics with a former president who especially loves Tinseltown, William Jefferson Clinton. She might talk about film with agent Michael Ovitz, Hollywood attorney Bertram Fields, or a former president of Time Warner, Gerald Levin.

"Angelina gets along with everybody," the deputy head of public information for UNHCR, Jennifer Pagonis, said.

No daycare at the council may be a let down for Ms. Jolie, who gave birth to a child, Shiloh, last May, and is also raising two adopted children with actor Brad Pitt.

In addition to policy papers and ambassadorial addresses, the council occasionally shows documentaries with a foreign policy content. Ms. Jolie herself made a documentary about western Kenya with a Columbia professor and council member, Jeffrey Sachs.

Mr. Holtzman, who works for the firm Brown Lloyd James, said it was natural for the council to consider someone like Ms. Jolie. He said culture has become a major force in international affairs. A Newsweek senior editor, Jonathan Alter, said she is as qualified as, or more so, as other term members — many are bankers and lawyers with less actual experience overseas than she possesses.

The program director of National Committee on American Foreign Policy, Daniel Morris, gives Ms. Jolie credit for humanitarian work, but cautioned that it would take more than a Hollywood actress to effect the kind of change needed to solve complex issues facing Africa.

HERE'S Cameron Diaz sharing a roll-up with Drew Barrymore as they chill out on a joint holiday.

The close pals and Charlie's Angels co-stars split the cost of their high jinx on the Hawaiian island of Kauai.

Drew passed the ciggie to Cameron, 34, who checked the coast was clear before taking a long drag. A fellow bather said: "Cameron's eyes were half shut and she leant back so far she was almost horizontal."

The duo have become closer friends after Cameron split from her pop-star toyboy Justin Timberlake last month and Drew broke off her relationship with Strokes drummer Fabrizio Moretti.

The pair - who co-starred with sultry actress Lucy Liu in the Charlie’s Angels movies - even vowed to spend Valentine’s Day together.

But Drew has since been spotted snuggling up to director Spike Jonze.

The actress is known for her wild chidhood, and famously confessed to drinking aged nine, smoking marijuana at 10 and snorting cocaine at 12.

She began battling an addiction to drink and drugs following the 1982 blockbuster E.T.

She later talked of hitting rock bottom, attempting suicide at 13 by slashing her wrists.

Cameron will appear later this year in animated film Shrek the Third.

As If Britney Spears Need Another Bad Influence

Britney Spears has become friends with a Baldwin! In fact, Daniel and Britney have become rehab buddies. Yeah, this is exactly what she needs. To team up with this guy!

Movie star Baldwin met up with the pop star at the Promises rehab clinic in Malibu, California over the weekend (24/25FEB07) and urged her to contact him if she needed to talk about her troubles. A source says, “He gave her his phone number.” Baldwin has since told US TV news show EXTRA that his new pal seemed “a little fearful about her situation”.

In other Britney news, it seems that she is in the works of purchasing all the rooms in her entire wing of the rehab facility. She wants privacy. It is going to cost her hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Cashing in on the Britney Spears Sex Lotto

Who won the Britney Spears sex lotto? Was it Isaac Cohen, the former boyfriend of Britney Spears? The handsome model has faded from the scene for now but earlier this month revealed Britney's wild ways. Cohen earlier told the tabloid 'News of the World' that she's most at peace having sex, "She loves sex and is incredibly adventurous."

The Britney Spears Sex Lotto

Cohen went into some detail about his famous trip to Las Vegas with Britney Spears, where the two spent a weekend in a $40,000 a night villa - "We clambered on and I grabbed the remote and started it turning round and round. All the time as we made love we watched ourselves in the mirrored ceiling. It was amazing but we did it so many times it made us start to feel sick. We had to turn it off."

But he at least he didn't say he won the Britney sex lottery, that was reserved for old flame and first husband Jason Alexander.

***

Jason described feeling like he had "won the sex lotto" when he watched a totally naked Britney being intimately fondled by some of her backing dancers before he joined in an intimate romp with the star and another girl that made his wildest fantasies come true.

The next day was New Year's Day 2004 and after they went shopping at a mall, Jason saw Britney's wilder sexual side - when she started getting frisky with some of her backing dancers - both male and female.

***

"But later on I saw Britney walk back to one of the bedrooms with one of the female dancers," Alexander confessed to the paper. "When she didn't come out in about five minutes, I got up to investigate. The door was unlocked so, of course, I had to open it. "Every guy I know would love to see some buck-naked (girls) going at it and that is exactly what was behind door number one. "

"It was like winning the sex lotto. Britney and this girl were having some lesbian fun, so I did what every other straight guy would do - I dropped my pants and hopped right into the middle of it and enjoyed every second. It was definitely a New Year's Day to remember."

It's a lotto all right. It's nice to see him cashing in while Britney is in rehab.

Pamela Anderson Turns Down Fashion Show Invite

Anderson declined his invite, including an offer to create her a bespoke outfit for the occasion, because he uses animal pelts in his collection.

In her open letter back to Julian she thanked him for the invite but declined and urged him to watch her educational video for PETA which is featured on their website. She wrote: "Dear Julian, unfortunately I won't be in London for Fashion Week, but I truly appreciate the invitation to your show and your kind offer of creating an outfit for me. I'm hoping you can extend your kindness to include animals. If you stop using fur, I'd be thrilled to attend a show of yours in the future. Please watch my video about the fur trade on peta.org.uk."

The actress praised Julian for his talent, saying "You're such a wonderful, talented designer, and I know you can come up with killer fashions that don't kill anything. My friends at PETA and I would love to hear from you should you decide to go fur-free. Best of luck at Fashion Week, and kindest regards, Pamela."

Pamela is a dedicated spokesperson for PETA and has been involved in a number of anti-fur demonstrations on behalf of the group.

At the London Fashion Week in February last year MacDonald and show opener Paris Hilton were showered in flour by PETA as they went to an after-show party in Mayfair.

Lindsay Lohan Backs Out of Upcoming Movie

Lindsay Lohan, who entered rehab last month, has backed out of an upcoming movie, A Woman of No Importance, her rep confirms.

“She doesn’t want to just yes everyone and compromise herself anymore,” says her publicist, Leslie Sloane. “If anything has been learned, it’s that what she needs comes first and right now she needs focus.”

Jessica Simpson Gifts Orphanage with Wheels

Jessica Simpson has a big fan in Mexico: Mama Lupita, who runs the Casa Hogar Elim orphanage in Nuevo Laredo.

“Last week, someone asked Mama Lupita if she could use a van at the orphanage,” a source close to Simpson says.

“Mama Lupita said, ‘Of course we could use it.’ So then she was told that she was getting a brand new seven-passenger van from Jessica Simpson for the orphanage.”

Is Naomi Watts Expecting?

Naomi Watts is expecting someone. A source says that the 38-year-old actress and her actor beau, Liev Schreiber, 39, are going to be parents.

The couple of nearly two years dined with pals at NYC eatery Pastis on February 18 where “Naomi was visibly pregnant,” an eyewitness says. “Liev was smiling and looking at her stomach. They were cute.”

Watts’ rep said she doesn’t comment on her client’s personal life.

Google to buy YouTube for $1.65 billion

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By Paul R. La Monica, CNNMoney.com editor at large

October 9 2006: 5:43 PM EDT

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Google, the Internet's leading search engine, announced Monday that it is buying popular online video site YouTube for $1.65 billion in stock.

YouTube, which was founded in February 2005, has quickly become the most well-known of several online video sites. More than 100 million videos, many of which are short videos created by the site's users, are downloaded a day on the site.

According to Internet research firm Hitwise, YouTube has about a 46 percent share of the online video market.

For Google (Charts), the purchase of YouTube gives the company the ability to tap into the potentially lucrative online video and social networking markets. Some analysts have criticized Google for relying too much on advertising tied to keyword searches.

The combination of Google and YouTube could further strengthen Google's dominance in online advertising, giving it an edge over rivals such as Yahoo! (Charts), Microsoft's (Charts) MSN and News Corp (Charts)., which owns the social networking site MySpace. Some analysts said Monday that Yahoo, Microsoft and News Corp. also had probably expressed interest in buying YouTube.

Bill Tancer, general manger of global research of Hitwise, said after the deal was announced that MySpace would now probably need to promote its own video service more aggressively on its site in order to compete with a combined Google-YouTube.

And Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Global Crown Capital, said that Google's purchase of YouTube could be viewed as a preemptive strike against Yahoo, which has been rumored to be in talks to purchase social networking site Facebook.

In a statement, Google said YouTube will operate as an independent unit of Google once the deal closes and will retain the YouTube brand name. The companies added that no YouTube workers will lose their jobs as a result of the acquisition and that Google will maintain its own online video business.

Clayton Moran, an analyst with Stanford Group, said after the deal was announced that Google was paying a rich price for YouTube since it has yet to generate a sizable amount of sales. But he said Google needed to do something to become more competitive with MySpace, which currently ranks in second place in online video market share.

"My sense is that Google is paying a full price considering that YouTube is still unproven in regards to its revenue potential. But considering the success of MySpace it was clearly worthwhile for Google to take this step," Moran said.

In addition to giving Google a stronger foothold in the burgeoning social networking market, YouTube could also help Google extend its highly successful text-based search platform into video, which could wind up being even more profitable.

Pyykkonen said that for this reason, Google may be able to justify paying such a high price for YouTube.

"Google has talked a lot about video and video search without really having anything particularly going on there. I would think that a lot of advertisers would be willing to pay a premium for a video search ad opposed to paid search text," he said.

First step?

During a conference call, Google chief executive officer Eric Schmidt said the YouTube deal would be one of "many investments" that Google planned to make in online video. He added that the combination of Google and YouTube would make Google more desirable to advertisers.

"This is just the beginning of an Internet video revolution," he said.

There is some debate about whether or not YouTube or other user-generated video sites will be able to attract the interest of top advertisers. But Tancer said that big corporations may be forced to start spending on ads tied to such clips.

"I don't know if advertisers will have the choice going forward. They'll have to start taking risks. People more and more are going to use brands in user generated content," Tancer said.

He mentioned the popularity of the so-called Diet Coke-Mentos Experiment video, a clip that featured two men creating elaborate gushers of Diet Coke by dropping Mentos candies into bottles of the soft drink. Mentos eventually wound up becoming the exclusive sponsor of the video on Revver, a privately held online video site that sells ads tied to user-generated videos.

Reports of a Google-YouTube deal first began to circulate on Friday. Shares of Google rose about 2 percent on the Nasdaq Monday after posting a similar gain on Friday. The stock edged slightly higher in after hours trading.

Before the deal was announced, some analysts expressed concerns about the litigation risks involved with YouTube since some videos posted on the site infringe on copyrighted material owned by major traditional media firms.

To that end, YouTube truly became a part of the pop culture lexicon earlier this year after people started posting pirated versions of "Lazy Sunday," a skit on NBC's sketch comedy show "Saturday Night Live" on the site. NBC eventually forced YouTube to take down links to this clip.

But Chad Hurley, co-founder and CEO of YouTube, said the Google deal will allow YouTube to focus even more on copyright protection since Google has more financial and technological resources to dedicate to the issue.

However, more and more media companies have recently begun to partner with YouTube. In fact, NBC announced a partnership with YouTube earlier this summer to promote shows from its new fall schedule on the site.

And on Monday, YouTube announced separate agreements with broadcast firm CBS (Charts) and music companies Sony BMG Entertainment and Universal Music Group to show video from these companies libraries. CBS and Sony BMG will share advertising revenue with YouTube. Terms of the Universal deal were not disclosed.

Google also announced an online video deal with Sony BMG Monday as well as one with Warner Music Group.