Lawsuit claims paparazzi supplied cocaine to Ledger
The suit says footage of the Ledger encounter, a portion of which aired briefly on two US television shows days after his death in January — prompting an outcry in Hollywood — was sold to media outlets around the world.
The lawsuit claims the video has generated more than $1 million (€640,000) in revenues that should be forfeited under a California state law that requires paparazzi to hand over any profits obtained through illegal activity.
Best known for his Oscar-nominated role as a gay cowboy in the 2005 movie Brokeback Mountain, Ledger died of an accidental overdose of prescription drugs in his New York apartment on January 22.
The suit accuses the Los Angeles-area Splash News & Picture Agency of paying for cocaine that was allegedly used by two of its photographers to entice Ledger, widely reported to have struggled with substance abuse, into being surreptitiously filmed using drugs.
The incident occurred on January 29, 2006, at the Chateau Marmont hotel on Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, where Ledger was attending an ‘after-party’ following his winning the Screen Actors Guild Award for Brokeback Mountain.
People magazine has confirmed that the woman behind the suit was a freelancer for the magazine at the time but has not been associated with the publication since last year.
The suit describes her as an unwitting accomplice of the two photographers, one of whom she was dating.
