A judge has ruled members of the news media and the public watching next week’s trial pitting wrestling star Hulk Hogan against the online entertainment media website Gawker will not be allowed to view the sex tape in question.
According to a tweet from Tampa Bay Times reporter Anna Phillips, a television set showing the video will be turned to face only the jury.
Hogan, legally Terry Bollea, is suing Gawker for $100 million for invasion of privacy after the website posted a one-minute clip of the sex tape in 2012. The tape showed Bollea having consensual sex with Heather Clem, the then wife of Bubba the Love Sponge.
Two other cases were filed against the radio shock jock and his ex-wife. The case against Bubba was settled and there are indications the one with Heather Clem will be as well.
Bollea, as a judge ruled he will be referred to, and his attorneys filed a motion in court to bar the press and public from seeing the sex tape, arguing it would further violate Bollea’s privacy.
In a separate ruling, a judge also allowed Bollea to wear his trademark bandanas on his head, though the accessory will have to be a single color. Bollea argued the bandana is needed to protect his bald head from the sun.
The lawsuit kicks off next week in Pinellas county court and is expected to last at least several days. Gawker is defending its posting of the sex tape arguing Bollea made his sex-life common knowledge by talking about it on shows such as the Howard Stern Show and writing about it in biographies.
That, they claim, makes the tape newsworthy.
