It responded with photostatic copies of the alleged releases, which within two or three days she denounced to Hustler as forgeries. She complained to the magazine that it had no authority to publish any photos of her.
The parties stipulated that, if called as a witness, a handwriting expert would testify that Douglass's signature had been forged on one of the releases and that the photostat of the other was too poor to allow the authenticity of the signature on it to be determined.ĭouglass heard that there was to be a photo feature on her in the January 1981 issue of Hustler (an acquaintance had seen an announcement of it in a previous issue).
#Hustler magazine covers 1981 trial#
At trial Hustler was able to produce only photostats of the releases allegedly signed by Douglass. He testified that he couldn't find the releases at first but that eventually he submitted to Hustler two releases signed by Douglass, one for the photo session for the "Ripped-Off" pictorial, the other for the "Water and Sex" pictorial. After he was hired, management asked Gregory for releases authorizing publication of these photographs. The magazine wanted to publish nude photos of celebrities and in negotiations over becoming Hustler's photography editor Gregory had shown management some of his photographs of Douglass. This move was not unconnected with his earlier photographing of Douglass. Meanwhile in 1980 Gregory had become the photography editor She appeared eight times nude in Playboy but also made television commercials for Chicago advertising agencies and appeared in television dramas and in movies-notably "Breaking Away," where she had a starring role. Gregory had in 1974 also taken nude photographs of Douglass for a "Water and Sex" pictorial, also intended for Playboy and there is a similar conflict over the release.ĭouglass's career throve in the following years. Some of the photographs were published in Playboy in March 1975 as planned. Robyn Douglass testified (and the jury was entitled to believe) that all she signed was a release authorizing Playboy to publish or otherwise use the photographs "for any lawful purpose whatsoever, without restrictions." The release does not refer to sale as such but in granting rights not only to Playboy but to its "assigns and licensees," Douglass in effect gave Playboy carte blanche to dispose of the photos in any lawful way it wanted. Gregory testified that he required all his photographic models to sign releases allowing him to do with the photographs whatever he wanted. The photographs were intended for a forthcoming feature in Playboy magazine, the "Ripped-Off" pictorial. That year she posed nude together with another woman for the freelance photographer Augustin Gregory, a codefendant with Hustler in the district court. Robyn Douglass moved to Chicago in 1974 and began a career as an actress and model. Hustler (as we shall call the magazine and its publisher interchangeably) has appealed, raising questions of tort law, freedom of the press, and trial procedure Douglass has cross-appealed, complaining about the judge's action in reducing the punitive damages awarded by the jury. Robyn Douglass, the actress and model, obtained $600,000 in damages in this diversity suit against the corporation that publishes Hustler magazine, for invasion of her right of privacy. Kanwit, Hopkins & Sutter, Chicago, Ill., for defendant Hustler Magazine, Inc.īefore ESCHBACH and POSNER, Circuit Judges, and TIMBERS, Senior Circuit Judge. Serpico, Serpico, Novelle, Dvorak & Navigato, Ltd., Chicago, Ill., for plaintiff-appellee-cross-appellant. Rehearing and Rehearing En Banc Denied Aug. HUSTLER MAGAZINE, INC., Defendant-Appellant-Cross-Appellee, Robyn DOUGLASS, Plaintiff-Appellee-Cross-Appellant,
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