Howard Stern Files Libel Lawsuit Against Rita Cosby
Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer and companion, Howard Stern, filed a $US60 million libel lawsuit Tuesday against Rita Cosby and her publisher over a book she wrote that claims Stern and Smith's ex-boyfriend, Larry Birkhead, had a sexual encounter. The suit, filed in federal court in New York, seeks $10 million in compensatory damages and $50 million in punitive damages from Cosby - who wrote Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith's Death - and Hachette Book Group USA Inc. The book, which hit stores in September, claims that besides the alleged sexual encounter, Birkhead and Stern both worked together after Smith's death to manipulate the media and maximise profits. The suit says that the book falsely accuses Stern of, among other things, criminal lewd acts, homosexual acts, illegal possession and use of cocaine, conspiring to commit murder and kidnapping for ransom. "Defendants have exploited Ms Smith's life and death by publishing false and defa...