Howard K. Stern, the lawyer and companion for former Playboy playmate Anna Nicole Smith has filed a $60 million libel suit against the author and publisher of a new book on Smith’s life and death. in “Blond Ambition,” Rita Crosby details how she claims Stern engaged in homosexual acts and cocaine use. The lawsuit includes her published (appropriatedly named) Hachette Book Group. He is seeking $10 million for compensatory damages and $50 million for punitive damages.

The lawsuit will raise an array of interesting questions. Stern is a public figure who will have to satisfy the actual malice standard, first articulated by the Supreme Court in New York Times v. Sullivan. This requires a showing of knowing falsity or reckless disregard. There is also the issue of whether homosexuality is still a per se catetory of defamation. For the full story, click here