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Attorneys with Davis Wright Tremaine defended celebrity magazine Us Weekly against a defamation lawsuit filed by pop star Britney Spears, based on an article reporting that she and her husband had made a sex tape. The lawsuit stemmed from an article published Oct. 17, 2005, in the magazine's 'Hot Stuff' column under the headline, 'Brit & Kev: Secret Sex Tape? New parents have a new worry: racy footage from 2004.' It claimed Spears and her then husband, Kevin Federline, feared the release of a secret sex tape, which they had viewed with their estate planning lawyers. Superior Court Judge Lisa Hart Cole dismissed Britney Spears' lawsuit against the magazine, ruling the pop star cannot be defamed by published rumors that she and her husband had made a sex tape and were worried about its release. Cole said that Spears had 'put her modern sexuality squarely, and profitably, before the public eye' and it would be unlikely for the magazine article to be found defamatory. The court granted the magazine's anti-SLAPP motion, and dismissed Spears' lawsuit. Us Weekly recovered attorneys' fees under the anti-SLAPP statute. (Cal. Sup. Ct. 2007)
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