Served For $60 Million: Howard K. Stern Files Suit Against Rita Cosby

[babylonsister]

Anna Nicole Smith Book Prompts $60M Suit

HARRY R. WEBER | October 2, 2007 07:57 PM EST | AP

ATLANTA — Anna Nicole Smith's lawyer and companion, Howard K. Stern, filed a $60 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, the former MSNBC host 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 maximize profits.

Smith died of an accidental drug overdose in Florida in February at age 39. Stern initially claimed to have fathered Smith's young daughter, Dannielynn, but Birkhead eventually showed he was the father. The baby could inherit millions from the estate of Smith's late husband, Texas oil tycoon J. Howard Marshall II.

Stern's lawsuit 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.

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