A former lap-dancer is suing the publishers of lads’ mag Nuts, claiming an interview was falsely attributed to her.
Janine Marshall is suing over a story headed: ‘Dannii Minogue played with my boobs! Lap dancer Janine tells Nuts how the X-Factor judge got down and dirty with her”.
The quotes in the story were largely lifted from an article published in the News of the World two weeks earlier, while other parts were invented, she claims.
In her writ, Marshall says that Nuts falsely claimed that the article was a first person account she gave exclusively to the magazine, and used a fictional interview format in which she was posed a series of specific questions which purport to have prompted her quotes.
The News of the World quotes were amended, deleted, or altered, and some were invented, she alleges.
Marshall, who owns a dance academy specialising in pole dance training, accuses publishers IPC Media of infringing her right not to have a literary work falsely attributed to her.
She claims that the publishers knew that she had not provided them with quotes for its article, and instead of admitting that most of the quotes were lifted directly from the News of the World, it chose to present them as a first hand account of her experience with Dannii Minogue.
The quotes were dressed up as a first person interview with her to lend a false air of credibility to the article, the writ claims.
Marshall adds that the magazine fabricated further quotes to titillate its readership, including the suggestion that she was tempted to go back to Minogue’s flat with her boyfriend.
Marshall alleges that Nuts blatantly lifted selected quotations from the News of the World, and invented others, without her consent, and without any warning.
She had been paid by the News of the World for the story she gave the paper, and says that Nuts did not contact her first because it knew that it too would have to pay her for her story.
Marshall accuses Nuts of flagrantly infringing her moral rights, and of disregarding her legal rights, and complains of the dismissive manner in which the magazine has treated her.
Now she is seeking damages and aggravated damages, or an inquiry into damages, for false attribution, as well as an injunction banning IPC from repeating the article or making false attribution.
A spokesperson for IPC said: ‘We can confirm that we have been contacted by Janine Marshall’s legal representatives.”
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