Paris Hilton seeks to close website
- January 30, 2007
PARIS Hilton has filed a lawsuit in Los Angeles demanding the closure of a website where visitors can pay to view nude photos and other items that formerly belonged to her.
Hilton's suit says the website - parisexposed.com - which displays photos, home videos, diary entries and audiotapes of her conversations, as well as images of her passport, is "one of the most reprehensible invasions of privacy of a celebrity".
The site includes topless pictures of 25-year-old Hilton on holiday and also shows her frolicking in a bath.
In a declaration to the court, the Simple Life reality television star says the items were put into storage two years ago after she and her sister Nicky moved out of a house after it was burgled.
Hilton claimed the removal company was supposed to pay the storage fees and that she was "shocked and surprised" to learn that the amount had not been paid and that her belongings had been sold at a public auction.
"I was appalled to learn that people are exploiting my and my sisters' private personal belongings for commercial gain," she said in her court statement.
Hilton is seeking closure of the site on the grounds that the information shown could be used by people "to steal my identity, or even worse, to harass or stalk me".
The lawsuit claims the possessions were bought by defendants Nabil and Nabila Haniss for $3590 and sold to a third person, Bardia Persa, for $12.937 million. Visitors to the site pay around $51.75 to view the items.
In addition to claiming invasion of privacy, Hilton says she filed copyright registrations last week for three pieces of writing that are contained in the belongings. She claims the site is engaging in copyright infringement.
The publicity hungry Hilton has struggled to keep her personal life private in the past. A home sex video of her and a former boyfriend leaked onto the internet in 2003, and in 2005 a computer hacker broke into her mobile phone address book.
