Gawker is appealing the $140 million jury verdict over the first sex tape and has denied that it leaked the sealed transcript to the Enquirer. He now alleges that Gawker provided the transcript from the tape of his having sex with Heather Clem, wife of his then-best friend Bubba “the Love Sponge” Clem to the tabloid, which the suit says meant his “income was cut off, his legacy in entertainment was severely damaged (if not completely destroyed), and his global brand was forever tarnished”.
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Back in 2012, Calta and Loyd were allegedly assisted by Tony Burton, a talent agent at Buchwald & Associates, who Hogan says communicated with Gawker’s then editor A.J. Daulerio.
Could this be the main event and final match between Hogan and Gawker? “Several of the claims arise out of acts that occurred after the discovery cutoff in the prior legal action”, the statement continues. Gawker has presented the situation differently, saying that the racist comments reveal Hogan’s true motivation for filing a lawsuit and demonstrate his lack of harm about what it published. “Hundreds of stories were published that were highly critical of Gawker in connection with its reporting”.
“Gawker found just the solution”, continues the complaint.
While the media company isn’t to blame for releasing the tapes, Gawker is believed to have leaked the sealed court documents last summer, which subsequently spitballed into the audio surfacing earlier this year. The WWE severed its longtime ties with the famous wrestler as soon as the Enquirer piece came out. Hogan adds that Gawker’s strategy was to “deliberately and repeatedly” file materials containing Hogan’s offensive language with knowledge that the media would seek to obtain or unseal such materials. “It asserts causes of action for interference with contractual relations and infliction of emotional distress against all defendants; and violation of privacy and wiretapping against the non-Gawker defendants”.
This is getting ridiculous.
Since the leak of both the sex tape and racist remarks, Hogan has apologized and made a public statement about the situation and that he wanted to “improve as a person”, and takes the matter as an “important learning experience”. After the comments – made about Hogan’s daughter’s black boyfriend – became public, Hogan was sacked by the WWE.
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“As we’ve said before and are happy to say again: Gawker did not leak the information”, the statement said.
