Re: 2/28/02 - Austin American-Statesman: 'Wild Party Girls' video maker must pay SWT student $5 million awarded to topless young woman see in humiliating TV ads
'Wild Party Girls' video maker must pay SWT student $5 million awarded to topless young woman see in humiliating TV ads
By Jeremy Schwartz
American-Statesman Staff
Thursday, February 28, 2002
SAN MARCOS -- Southwest Texas State University student Amber Kulhanek went to spring break in 2000 on South Padre Island for her 21st birthday and ended up taking off her shirt at a wet T-shirt contest in Mexico.
A few months later Kulhanek saw herself in national ads for a "Wild Party Girls" video on the E! cable network, a red strip proclaiming "Too hot for TV" stamped across her naked breasts. Kulhanek, now a senior, said she was mortified when friends and relatives saw the ad and strangers began asking her to take her top off.
Claiming she had been targeted by the video's makers, who she said plied her with alcohol at a Matamoros bar, Kulhanek sued E! and the Florida-based Arco Media Group Inc. for invasion of privacy and emotional distress.
On Wednesday morning, Kulhanek won what her lawyer says is the first judgment of its kind against the video makers and earned a $5 million default judgment in the 22nd District Court. Lawyers for Arco Media never officially responded to the lawsuit and could not be reached for comment Wednesday.
Videos such as "Wild Party Girls Spring Break Uncensored" are sold by several companies through late night TV ads and the Internet and often feature drunken college women exposing themselves at Mardi Gras and spring break celebrations.
Kulhanek's lawyer, David Sergi, said Arco Media representatives conspired with bartenders to get pretty young women to drink alcohol and convince them to enter wet T-shirt contests. "We're hoping this sends a message to these pariahs that they can't booze (the women) up . . . so they really can't give consent," Sergi said. "It's really like rape."
Kulhanek, who never signed a consent form, said she couldn't believe it when she saw herself on television. "I was just really shocked and humiliated," she said. "I just really hope they can learn to leave people alone."
Sergi said Kulhanek was put in a barbershop type chair where liquor was poured down her throat.
"Before she knew it, she was dead drunk," he said. "The people from Arco were egging her on to enter the wet T-shirt contest. The next thing she knew she was in front of a bunch of people with her shirt off."
Sergi said that although Kulhanek did not end up in the actual video, her image was in ads that ran for several month on E! and on the "Wild Party Girls" Internet site, where she could be found uncensored in the members section. The ads and the Internet picture have since been removed.
According to court documents, Kulhanek withdrew from classes at SWT in the fall of 2000 and suffered from insomnia as a result of the ads. Sergi said she has re-enrolled and is set to graduate this spring.
Kulhanek will continue her lawsuit against E!, which she claims worked with Arco Media to target young women and shared revenue from the tapes. E! lawyer Dale Jefferson said the entertainment network simply sold airtime to Arco Media. "Do we have a duty to censor advertisements wholly produced by third parties? We believe the legal answer to that legal question is no," he said.
Wednesday's default judgment calls for Kulhanek to receive $2.5 million for emotional distress, $2.5 million for her privacy claim and $10,000 in attorney's fees. Sergi said Kulhanek plans to donate part of her judgment to a women's shelter.
Sergi said he believes the judgment is the first against the makers of videos with nude college women.
In September, a Florida State University student who bared her breasts at Mardi Gras sued the makers of the "Girls Gone Wild" video series claiming invasion of privacy.
A lawyer for the video producers told The Associated Press that privacy protection does not extend to people who take their clothes off in public and especially not at large events where many people have video cameras.
jschwartz@statesman.com; (512) 392-8750
Bartenders conspired with video makers, lawyer says
© Copyright Cox Interactive Media, Inc.2001 All rights reserved.
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