Category: Lawsuits

Some stations want cursing out of ‘9/11’
NEW YORK – Broadcasters say the hesitancy of some CBS affiliates to air a powerful Sept. 11 documentary next week proves there’s been a chilling effect on the First Amendment since federal regulators boosted penalties for television obscenities after Janet Jackson’s breast was exposed at a Super Bowl halftime show.
“This is example No. 1,” said Martin Franks, executive vice president of CBS Corp., of the decision by two dozen CBS affiliates to replace or delay “9/11” ó which has already aired twice without controversy ó over concerns about some of the language used by the firefighters in it.
“We don’t think it’s appropriate to sanitize the reality of the hell of Sept. 11th,” Franks said. “It shows the incredible stress that these heroes were under. To sanitize it in some way robs it of the horror they faced.”
Actor Robert De Niro hosts the award-winning documentary, which began as a quest to follow a rookie firefighter on an ordinary day but resulted in the only known video of the first plane striking the World Trade Center and horrific and inspiring scenes of rescue, escape and death. CBS will show it on Sept. 10 from 8 p.m. to 10 p.m. EDT, profanity intact.
Carter G. Phillips, a lawyer for Fox Television Stations Inc., cited the decision by several CBS affiliates to replace the documentary or show it after 10 p.m., the time at which the Federal Communications Commission loosens restrictions, when he spoke last week to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan.
Phillips addressed the court as part of a hearing on whether the FCC rushed to judgment in concluding that “NYPD Blue” and three other programs violated decency rules.
Saying the FCC was chilling free speech rights, Phillips mentioned the documentary to show the court how timid broadcast companies had become since the FCC toughened its position toward profanities after the 2004 Super Bowl halftime show on CBS, in which Jackson’s breast was briefly bared.
Congress recently boosted the maximum fines the FCC can impose for indecency from $32,500 to $325,000.
So far, about a dozen CBS affiliates have indicated they won’t show the documentary, another dozen say they will delay it until later at night and two dozen others are considering what to do.
On Friday, Sinclair Broadcasting became the latest company to say it was delaying the broadcast until after 10 p.m. on its stations in Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Portland, Maine, saying it was concerned it could face fines.
The announcement came as the Tupelo, Miss.-based American Family Association readied its 3 million members to flood the FCC and CBS with complaints after the documentary airs.
“This isn’t an issue of censorship. It’s an issue of responsibility to the public,” said Randy Sharp, director of special projects for the group, which describes itself as a 29-year-old organization that promotes the biblical ethic of decency.
The documentary first aired on the six-month and one-year anniversaries of the Sept. 11 attacks on the trade center and the Pentagon. This latest showing, on the eve of the five-year anniversary, includes new interviews with many of the firefighters featured in the original, describing how their lives have changed.
Franks said it was an easy decision not to edit the language in the documentary, especially since it has won a George Foster Peabody Award, among others. “It was a much more difficult decision five years ago when the emotions were much more raw and fresh,” he said.
Franks said it seemed “dishonest somehow” for the network to cover up the real language five years later because of the current regulatory environment.
However, he said he understood the difficulties of small stations that fear the huge FCC fines. “We’re not twisting arms,” he said.
FCC spokeswoman Tamara Lipper said the commission routinely takes context into account in any decency analysis.
“We don’t police the airwaves. We respond to viewer complaints,” Lipper said. “We haven’t seen the broadcast in question. It’s up to individual stations to decide what they should air or not air.”
She noted that “the historical context of 9/11 is important to the context of the broadcast” but said she could not predict how the commission might view the show if it receives complaints.
Sharp promised on Friday that his organization would flood the FCC with complaints, saying nearly 198,000 people already had told the FCC they want the agency to “enforce the law should CBS decide to break it.”
CBS is feeling the heat. “Even if all 206 stations decide between now and the 10th to air the program live, what we have gone through for the past two or three weeks is overwhelming evidence of the chill facing broadcasters,” Franks said.

Ottawa man may sue Air Canada after viola smashed
A 20-year-old Ottawa man says he might sue Air Canada for damages after his $14,000 viola arrived in pieces.
Paul Casey, a music student at University of Ottawa, was returning from performing with the Youth Orchestra of the Americas in Europe when Air Canada insisted he check his viola as baggage.
He was told the airline has a strict policy against taking carry-on items weighing more than 10 kilogram.
Although the instrument case bore fragile stickers, it arrived with a snapped neck, a broken back and about 12 cracks on its front.
“We just figured it would last. We figured we would have it forever,” he said of the custom-made instrument.
Air Canada sent him a cheque for $1,600 compensation. That’s not nearly enough to replace it, he said.
Casey returned the cheque because he’s thinking about getting lawyers involved.
Guy Hamilton, the Ottawa violin maker who made Casey’s instrument, says it can’t be repaired.
It has sentimental value for Hamilton, because it’s the first instrument he made in Canada.
“It’s the first instrument that I know of that’s been destroyed,” he said in an interview with CBC Television.
Casey wonders why he was allowed to take the instrument on board in the past, but cannot now.
But the Air Transport Association of Canada warns musicians they shouldn’t expect any special treatment and says the new rules about cabin baggage will be more consistently enforced.
Other Ottawa area musicians say they fear they will have the same experience when they travel.
Joan Harrison, an NAC cellist, said she buys a separate ticket for her cello, so it can sit on a seat beside her, but now the airline is preventing that.
“Air Canada three times this year has not let me take my cello on board even though I’ve had a ticket,” she said, “because you don’t know what kind of airplane you’re getting and they happen to be small flights.” .
Instruments such her cello are very valuable, as well as a means of making a living, she said.
“I could sell my instruments and could buy another house. You spend years saving up. You have mortgages on your instruments.”
David Goldblatt, a performer with the NAC and representative of the American Federation of Musicians, said performers are worried. Many won’t check their instruments and that may mean they can’t travel.
“We have a tour coming up in November and, honestly, I don’t know what we’re going to do. I believe it’s a charter flight, but the same rules apply to charter flights as far as I know,” he said.

Scots eye Keith Richards smoking onstage
GLASGOW, Scotland – Keith Richards may have violated Scotland’s smoking ban by lighting up during a Rolling Stones concert.
The Glasgow City Council said Sunday it heard from journalists that the 62-year-old guitarist was smoking during a Friday night performance.
“It’s been brought to our attention that he was smoking, and we’ll be looking into it,” a council spokesman said on condition of anonymity, in keeping with city policy. “We do take our responsibilities for enforcement very seriously.”
Scotland’s ban on smoking in enclosed public places, including theaters and sports venues, took effect in March. Violators can be fined up to $95.
The spokesman did not know whether the journalists who spoke to the council had been at the concert, part of the band’s “A Bigger Bang” tour.
No one answered the phone Sunday at the offices of Richards’ publicists, LD Communications in London.
In the Scottish capital, officials warned during the Edinburgh Fringe Festival earlier this month that they would close down a theater if actor Mel Smith lit a cigar during his portrayal of Winston Churchill in the play “Allegiance.” Smith eventually agreed to keep the cigar unlit.

Mel Gibson pleads no contest in DUI case
MALIBU, Calif. – Mel Gibson ended his legal hangover Thursday, pleading no contest to a single misdemeanor charge of drunken driving in a deal that put him on probation for three years, fined him and sent him to alcohol rehabilitation classes.
His lawyers arranged to move his scheduled court appearance up by over a month, allowing Gibson to avoid creating a media frenzy with his plea. But he still faces the fallout from the anti-Semitic tirade he unleashed on a sheriff’s deputy the night of his arrest.
Gibson did not have to appear in the misdemeanor case and he did not, allowing attorney Blair Berk to handle the plea before Malibu Superior Court Judge Lawrence Mira.
The abrupt advancement of the proceeding was announced to the news media by the district attorney’s office with no time for most reporters to reach the distant courthouse before the plea was over.
“Media requests (for photo access) received after proceedings already completed,” the case file noted.
Court documents showed that Gibson signed the plea agreement and waived his right to a jury trial on Monday but the paperwork was filed just before Thursday’s proceeding.
Gibson was stopped around 2:30 a.m. on July 28 while driving on Pacific Coast Highway in Malibu and made anti-Semitic remarks to the arresting deputy, plunging Gibson into a scandal that led him to later apologize for what he called “belligerent behavior” and “despicable” remarks.
Gibson pleaded no contest to the misdemeanor of driving while having a 0.08 percent or higher blood-alcohol level. A second misdemeanor count, driving under the influence of alcohol, and the infraction of driving with an open container of alcohol, were dismissed.
A no-contest plea is not an admission of guilt but is equivalent to a guilty plea for determining sentencing.
“This was an appropriate outcome which addresses all the public safety concerns of drinking and driving,” Deputy District Attorney Gina Satriano said in a statement.
Authorities continued to refuse to release video and audio tapes of Gibson’s arrest despite the disposition of the case. Media organizations including The Associated Press have asked Sheriff Lee Baca for the tapes but have been denied on grounds they are part of an “investigatory file” and exempt from the California Public Records Act.
The celebrity news Web site TMZ has argued that the tapes should be heard and seen by the public to assess whether the Sheriff’s Department gave Gibson preferential treatment. The issue arose because a sheriff’s spokesman initially said the arrest occurred “without incident” and made no mention of the anti-Semitic remarks.
Court documents said Gibson has already voluntarily begun rehabilitation.
The documents show the judge placed Gibson on three years’ probation and ordered him to attend “self-help meetings” five times a week for 4 1/2 months and three meetings per week for another 7 1/2 months. Satriano said these would be Alcoholics Anonymous meetings, according to Jane Robison, a district attorney’s spokeswoman.
In addition, Gibson was ordered to enroll in and complete a “three-month, licensed first-offender alcohol and other drug education and counseling program.”
The judge also levied fines and fees totaling $1,608. Gibson’s driver license was restricted by the state Department of Motor Vehicles for 90 days, the district attorney’s office said. Robison did not know the terms of the restriction.
Gibson volunteered to make a public-service announcement about the hazards of drinking and driving, but the judge did not make that a condition of his sentencing.
“The court acknowledges that defendant has volunteered to make a public service announcement. This will not be a term of probation, however,” the court documents stated.
Gibson was ordered to appear Jan. 17 in court for a progress report.
Gibson’s spokesman, Alan Nierob, would not elaborate about the plea arrangement or offer any hints about when to expect Gibson’s public-service announcement.
The case file also showed that the original judge assigned to hear the case, Terry Adamson, recused herself because Gibson is one of her neighbors.

Hollywood split over Mel Gibson’s future
LOS ANGELES – A stunned Hollywood debated the future of one of its biggest stars Sunday as a sheriff’s watchdog launched an investigation into a possible cover up of a leaked report that quoted Mel Gibson unleashing a tirade of anti-Semitic remarks during a drunken driving arrest.
One media expert said Gibson irreparably damaged his career with his “crazy” behavior following his arrest by Los Angeles County Sheriff’s deputies in Malibu early Friday. Charges of anti-Semitism were also leveled against the actor-director with the release of his 2004 blockbuster “The Passion of the Christ.”
“It’s a nuclear disaster for him,” said publicist Michael Levine, who has represented Michael Jackson and Charlton Heston, among others. “I don’t see how he can restore himself.”
The entertainment Web site TMZ posted what it said were four pages from the original arrest report, which quoted Gibson as launching an expletive-laden “barrage of anti-Semitic remarks” after he was stopped on Pacific Coast Highway.
According to the report, in addition to threatening the arresting deputy and trying to escape, Gibson said, “The Jews are responsible for all the wars in the world,” and asked the officer, James Mee, “Are you a Jew?”
The report has not been made public, but the Los Angeles Times reported Sunday that it had independently verified its authenticity.
Gibson’s publicist, Alan Nierob, would not elaborate beyond a nonspecific apology Gibson issued Saturday. Sheriff’s sources also declined to comment on Gibson’s alleged remarks.
Studio executives, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the matter, were divided on how Gibson’s behavior would affect his career. One noted that people have short memories, including filmmakers who might want to profit from Gibson’s star power.
Filmgoers, too, could overlook much if the film is perceived as worthwhile.
“Usually it comes down to the marketing of the movie and does the average person want to see the film,” said Paul Dergarabedian, president of box office tracking firm Exhibitor Relations.
The Office of Independent Review, a department watchdog panel, has opened an investigation into whether authorities gave Gibson preferential treatment by covering up his alleged inflammatory comments, said its chief attorney, Mike Gennaco.
“Assuming that the report was excised, then the question is was it done for a good reason within regulations,” he said.
Gibson has filmed public service announcements for Sheriff Lee Baca’s relief committee dressed in a sheriff’s uniform.
“There is no cover-up,” Baca told the Los Angeles Times. “Our job is not to (focus) on what he said. It’s to establish his blood-alcohol level when he was driving and proceed with the case. Trying someone on rumor and innuendo is no way to run an investigation, at least one with integrity.”
Gibson said in his apology that he said “despicable” things to deputies during his arrest.
“I acted like a person completely out of control when I was arrested and said things that I do not believe to be true and which are despicable,” Gibson said.
Abraham H. Foxman, national director of the Anti-Defamation League, called Gibson’s apology “unremorseful and insufficient.”
“It’s not a proper apology because it does not go to the essence of his bigotry and his anti-Semitism,” he said in a statement on the organization’s Web site. “We would hope that Hollywood now would realize the bigot in their midst and that they will distance themselves from this anti-Semite.”
This is not the first time Gibson has faced accusations of anti-Semitism. Gibson produced, directed and financed “Passion,” which some Jewish leaders said cast Jews as the killers of Jesus.
In a 2004 interview with ABC’s Diane Sawyer, Gibson said he was not anti-Semitic.
“To be anti-Semitic is a sin,” he said. “It’s been condemned by one Papal Council after another. To be anti-Semitic is to be un-Christian, and I’m not.”
Days before “Passion” was released, Gibson’s father Hutton Gibson was quoted saying the Holocaust was mostly “fiction.” The younger Gibson has said that he will not speak against his father.
Gibson, 50, was arrested after deputies stopped his 2006 Lexus LS 430 for speeding at 2:36 a.m. Friday. Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said deputies clocked him doing 87 mph in a 45 mph zone.
A breath test indicated Gibson’s blood-alcohol level was 0.12 percent, Whitmore said. The legal limit in California is 0.08 percent.
Gibson posted $5,000 bail and was released hours later.
In his statement, Gibson also said he has struggled with alcoholism and had taken steps “to ensure my return to health.”
He won a best-director Oscar for 1995’s “Braveheart.” He also starred in the “Lethal Weapon” and “Mad Max” films, “What Women Want” and “The Man Without a Face,” among other films.

Mel Gibson arrested on suspicion of DUI
MALIBU, Calif. – Mel Gibson was arrested early Friday for suspicion of driving under the influence, a Sheriff’s Department spokesman said.
Gibson’s vehicle was speeding eastbound on the Pacific Coast Highway when officers stopped him at 2:36 a.m., Sheriff’s spokesman Steve Whitmore said.
Gibson, 50, was booked at the Lost Hills Sheriff’s station at 4:06 a.m., according to department records. The actor-director was cited and released, Whitmore said. Bail was set at $5,000.
“The investigation is ongoing,” Whitmore said. “As we would do with anyone, we don’t want to release any more since the information is fragmentary.”
Gibson’s spokesman, Alan Nierob, said he was looking into the matter.
Gibson won a best-director Oscar for 1995’s “Braveheart.”
Like his 2004 religious blockbuster, “The Passion of the Christ,” which was shot in Aramaic and Latin, his new film, “Apocalypto,” was done in an ancient tongue, Yucatec Maya.
Gibson has starred in the “Lethal Weapon” and “Mad Max” films, “What Women Want” and “The Man Without a Face,” among other movies.

You, Me, Dupree & Steely Dan’s Wrath
Something “kind of uncool” has come to Steely Dan’s attention.
Band members Walter Becker and Donald Fagen are requesting an in-person apology from Owen Wilson for playing the annoying titular character in You, Me and Dupree, which, the musicians point out, happens to share the name found in the Steely Dan song “Cousin Dupree.” The duo won a Grammy with that tune in 2001 for Best Pop Performance.
In a profanity-laced mock-angry letter posted on the band’s Website, Becker and Fagen suggest that the film character of Dupree rips off their song, which tells the tale of a slacker–named Dupree, of course–who is staying on his aunt’s couch and starts lusting after his cousin.
“When it came time to change the character’s name or whatever so people wouldn’t know what a rip the whole thing was, THEY DIDN’T EVEN BOTHER TO THINK UP A NEW F—ING NAME FOR THE GUY!” the rockers wrote.
The pair offered Wilson a chance to redeem himself–show up at their July 19 concert in Irvine, California, and “apologize to our fans for this travesty.” (Apparently no such thing went down Wednesday night.)
The letter, dated July 17, was typed on hotel stationery from the Residential Suites at Longworth in Corpus Christi, Texas–where they were obviously extremely bored on their day off between shows–and addressed to Wilson’s brother, Luke, whose new film My Super Ex-Girlfriend opened Friday.
Becker and Fagen at first gave kudos to Luke for his work with his older brother in Wes Anderson’s Bottle Rocket, but then proceeded to get down to business, which for the most part consisted of bashing You, Me and Dupree and warning Owen Wilson that he’s thisclose to losing his coolness factor for appearing in such tripe.
The film, starring Wilson as a slacker who shacks up with his best buddy, played by Matt Dillon, and his buddy’s new bride (Kate Hudson, looking pretty disgusted), made a respectable $21.5 million at the box office last weekend to come in at number three (behind the juggernaut that is Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest and the Wayans brothers comedy Little Man).
But we’ll see how the film that the Washington Post called a “formulaic, shockingly sloppy and virtually laugh-free star vehicle for Wilson” does in its second week out.
Anyway, the Steely ones went on to say that while they meant Wilson no harm, “there are some pretty heavy people who are upset about this whole thing and we can’t guarantee what kind of heat little Owen may be bringing down on himself.”
Despite their purported rage, the Two Against Nature rockers seemed to lose themselves here and there when it came to separating fact from fiction.
“We realize what a drag it is for you [Luke] to have people coming to you about [Owen’s] lameness all the time and we’re really sorry to be doing the same thing,” they lamented, but “you don’t owe him anything, after the way he and Gwynnie Paltrow double-timed you in The Royal Tenenbaums.”
Yes, we certainly hope Luke isn’t still nursing that grudge.
While we don’t see Wilson up in arms over Steely Dan’s comments, the Wedding Crashers star has been known to not take criticism sitting down.
In February 2005 Wilson took New Yorker critic David Denby to task for his unfavorable synopsis of pal Ben Stiller’s career.
“I’ve acted in two hundred and thirty-seven buddy movies and, with that experience, I’ve developed an almost preternatural feel for the beats that any good buddy movie must have,” Wilson wrote in a letter to the venerable publication. “And maybe the most crucial audience-rewarding beat is where one buddy comes to the aid of other guy to help defeat a villain. Or bully. Or jerk.”
But Steely Dan isn’t playing the part of the bully. No, the guys just want to help, and in doing so offered this advice:
“Let’s just help Owen do what’s right, let’s play past this particular screwup, and then he can get back to his life and his family and his beautiful moviestar-style pad or whatever, none the worse for wear and with some groovy new tee’s and hoodies and maybe a keyring or a coffee mug in the process. Alright? Well, alright!”

McCready Beats DUI Rap
Mindy McCready won’t be staying the night in jail–and she’s got some new song fodder to boot.
The oft-troubled country singer was found not guilty Wednesday of a DUI charge stemming from a May 2005 arrest, although a Nashville jury did convict her of driving with a suspended license.
McCready, 30, was pulled over last spring for speeding and refused to take a breath test after police smelled alcohol. Kenneth Dixon, the arresting officer, testified Monday that the “If I Don’t Stay the Night” artist had been wobbly on her feet and that her eyes were watery and bloodshot that night.
Attorney Lee Dryer had argued that his client, who was driving a friend’s car when she was arrested, had actually been performing a good deed, giving a friend who was too drunk to drive a ride home from the nightclub the two had been at. Dryer also said that the sobriety test McCready was forced to take wasn’t given properly and that the songstress had removed her shoes and found it hard to walk steadily in her supposedly too-long pants.
Jurors were apparently swayed by police video of the arrest, which was screened during the three-day trial.
In addition to avoiding the most serious charge against her, McCready escaped a contempt charge she was threatened with after arriving in court 10 minutes late Monday for the start of the trial.
Outside court McCready told reporters that she might use her personal troubles as the basis for new music in an attempt to jumpstart her stalled career. “This is one step in getting past a lot things,” she added.
Those “things” include two suicide attempts in 2005–with one occurring while she was pregnant with her ex-boyfriend’s child–and a pending $3 million lawsuit against said ex, aspiring country singer Billy McKnight, who beat her up two days after her arrest on suspicion of drunk driving. He has since pleaded guilty to aggravated assault and was sentenced to 30 days in jail.
On a happier note, McCready gave birth to their son, Zander Ryan McCready, on Mar. 25.
McCready is also supposed to attend a hearing later this year to determine whether she violated her probation by leaving Tennessee without permission. She was on probation in the first place after pleading guilty in August 2004 to using a fake prescription to buy OxyContin.

McCready: Cops Give Me “Hard Time”
It took a while, but Mindy McCready finally showed up for the start of her DUI trial on Monday. On Tuesday, she took the stand and blamed her arrest on some overzealous cops.
McCready, whose once promising career has been derailed by a series of personal crises, is on trial in Nashville for drunken driving and driving with a suspended license stemming from an arrest in May 2005. The singer has pleaded not guilty to the charges that resulted in her spending a night in jail.
Per local reports, she testified Tuesday that she believed she was pulled over so cops could “give me a hard time.”
“Way back when–when I used to have hit records 10 years ago–I would get pulled over a lot and had officers ask me to do the strangest things. Once an officer asked me to dance for his camera,” she told the jury.
It will be day or so before we learn whether McCready swayed the jurors, but she’s already on the judge’s bad side.
The arrest-prone country singer was found in “willful contempt of the court” Monday, when she arrived 10 minutes late to for the start of her trial.
Judge Seth Norman blasted the songbird for her tardiness, but said he would not dole out a punishment until after her trial was complete.
While Norman gave no clues as to what penalty McCready could face, typical sentences range from a verbal warning up to 10 days in jail.
The 30-year-old gave no reason for her lack of punctuality, but the single mom did arrive in court toting her infant son.
McCready was pulled over by Nashville’s finest around 3 a.m. May 6, 2005 after she was clocked doing 58 in a 40 mph zone, per the police report.
“Her eyes were bloodshot and watery,” arresting officer Kenneth Dixon said on the stand Monday. “And there was a very strong odor of alcohol coming from the vehicle.”
Dixon also said McCready had performed poorly on the administered field sobriety test, saying “she was a little unsteady on her feet and I believe she did not follow instructions a few times.” After refusing to take a Breathalyzer, she was arrested and charged with the DUI.
While Assistant District Attorney Ben Winters claims the altercation is a simple case of “someone who broke the law and refuses to take responsibility for her actions,” McCready yesterday took issue with the circumstances leading up to her arrest.
The singer claimed she was not drunk and that she was simply doing a favor by driving a “highly intoxicated” friend home, claiming the car’s alcoholic smell was emanating from her passenger, not herself.
According to her lawyer, Lee Dryer, she was simply the victim of a “good deed.”
Dryer further argued that the field sobriety test was improperly issued and that the officers on the scene failed to follow procedure by not ensuring the street was clear of debris or otherwise distracting materials and that no lights were shining in McCready’s eyes during the exam.
“So if there were [any of those factors], there would be doubts about your conclusions, yes?” Dryer asked Dixon.
“That’s correct.”
Luckily, it shouldn’t take too long to sort the stories out.
The sobriety test was recorded and the video is expected to be shown in court during the trial, which resumed Tuesday morning with the defense’s case.
The DUI arrest is latest woe for the onetime rising star.
In 2004, she was rung up on charges of prescription drug fraud after faking a doctor’s signature to obtain the painkiller OxyContin. While McCready initially pleaded not guilty to the charges, she eventually copped to it, was fined and sentenced to three years’ probation, which she was under at the time of her arrest last spring. Once the current trial is over, she will face a probation-violation hearing.
It’s been a trying year for McCready, who admitted to two suicide attempts and also gave birth to a child with her ex-boyfriend, aspiring country singer William McKnight.
Just two days after her DUI arrest, McCready was hospitalized after being severely beaten by her former beau. Last month, she filed a $3 million lawsuit against him, claiming his vicious attack sent her career into a downward spiral and irreparably damaged her career.

McCartney’s wife in sex scandal
It’s been a hard couple of nights for Heather Mills, but Paul McCartney’s estranged wife is frantically denying she ever worked like a dog.
U.K. paper News of the World alleges Mills hid a sordid past from her husband that included working as a $10,000-a-night prostitute and engaging in lesbian and group sex with wealthy Arabs.
Mills, 38, garnered headlines in another U.K. newspaper, The Sun, just last week after the paper published steamy photos of the former model engaging in explicit sex acts.
The photos are from the 1988 book Freuden der Liebe (Joys of Love), available to order from orion.de, a German website selling sexual material.
Though the paper called the photos “obscene and pornographic,” Mills explained that pictures of her posing intimately with a curly-haired male model were meant to be an instructional “lover’s guide.”
As for allegations she was a high-class prostitute, lawyers issued a statement over the weekend trying feverishly to refute the shocking stories, saying “the sources clearly are a variety of unreliable persons who have been paid.”
“The timing of the article is clearly designed to cause maximum hurt to Heather, her husband and family at this sensitive time,” the statement read.
News of the World devoted a four-page spread to the explosive story on Sunday, claiming they obtained sworn affidavits from the private secretary who paid Mills for “pleasuring his billionaire master” — an international arms dealer.
In a detailed interview with the secretary, the paper reveals lewd details of her sexual exploits that spanned Spain’s poshest resort towns and London hotels.
“She has lied through her teeth,” the secretary said in response to her denials.
High-profile ex-prostitutes also corroborate claims Mills was a sought-after escort while in her 20s.
One woman described how she and Mills — who she said wore stockings and stilettos for the romp — engaged in a foursome with a Saudi prince. Each woman earned about $2,000.
“The prince was really excited, especially when Heather performed a sex act on me. Then he had unprotected sex with her,” the woman told The Sun.
Another former prostitute who claims she too was intimate with Mills said, “Heather was a familiar face in our business.”
“I worked with her when we were both hired for a party thrown by an Arab prince…,” she said, adding that Mills “was bubbling over with enthusiasm.”
According to Mills’ lawyer, the tabloid that broke the story held on to the allegations for four years under threat of legal action from McCartney’s lawyers.
But Mills is no longer under his protection since the couple, who have a 2-year-old daughter, announced last month they were filing for divorce.