Britney Spears Files $20 Million Suit Over Sex-Tape Story

Sexy pop diva Britney Spears filed a $10 million lawsuit against US Weekly in Los Angeles Monday, accusing it of fabricating a story that she and her husband made a sexually explicit video.

The story, "Brit & Kev: Secret Sex Tape? New parents have a new worry: racy footage from 2004" ran in the magazine's "HOTstuff" column on Oct. 17, according to court documents filed in Los Angeles Superior Court's Beverly Hills branch and obtained by online entertainment news site TMZ.com.
According to an Associated Press report, the suit seeks $10 million in libel damages and $10 million for misappropriating Spears' name and image to promote sales of the weekly tabloid. It also asks for unspecified punitive damages.

The footage of the two was reportedly taken before Spears looked pregnant. The issue claimed Britney Spears and Kevin Federline were worried the home sex video was about to be made public.

Us Weekly also reported that the couple gave a copy of the tape to lawyers on 30 September 2005 and were "acting goofy" while watching it with them.

Ms Spears' complaint asserts that the entire story is false reports MTVNews

"There was no laughter, disgust or goofy behaviour while watching the video in the company of lawyers because they did not watch any video, and because there is no such video," the action stated.

According to the suit, Spears went to court after Us refused her request for a retraction, saying it stood by the story reports BBC News.

A spokeswoman for the magazine said: "Us Weekly has a credible source, and we stand by our reporting."

Spear`s attorney Marty Singer said there was never such a tape and US Weekly was 'maliciously standing by the bogus story,' TMZ reported.

'Britney has finally decided to take a stand to put a stop to people fabricating these malicious lies about her,' Singer told the Web site.