If what you just described is true — and I have no doubts that it is — then it’s the proverbial cutting off your nose to spite your face, eh?
I’ll show you. I’ll just go broke.
I believe it — but it also sounds like a legal strategy that only a porn star would be stupid enough to buy. I can only imagine that she believes that, heck, once this lawsuit is over, I’ll get so much money in damages and so much money from the public when I come back that going broke is a small price to pay.
Maybe I’m underestimating her star power, but I think there’s already too many veggie only gals out there. I think if Tera’s going to come back, she’s got to get nasty to separate herself from the pack. Otherwise why not just watch Felicia. Or rent old Janine tapes. Or heck, watch Jenna.
She’s not married to Evan is she? If not, then I suppose she could bankrupt herself regardless of whether she’s living with him or not, and have him support her.
Still, I smell bad stuff coming.
I gotta tell you, I sympathize with DP. The argument of: how can someone own a name is silly. People who create characters own the name — you think NBC could launch a new cartoon with a character named Bart Simpson? Or CBS launch a medical drama with a lead character of the same name as Noah Wylie in ER? Or a rival wrestling program launch a wrestler named Andre the Giant or Hulk Hogan? It’s intellectual property.
Tera Patrick is a character; the character was the creation of Digital Playground. It’s their intellectual property.
Or so it seems to me.
AIM Claims The STD Outbreak is Under Control:
My soures say bullshit. Face it y’all thats a problem in this biz that aint going away…Sharon is all excited about a new PCR test for herpes…shit half of porn valley has herpes…what are they gonna do blacklist em? Not Likely.
Goddess Squeals:
Speaking of the General, he sat through a TORI AMOS CONCERT! BWAHAHAHAHA—couldn’t have happened to a more deserving fella. The things South won’t do to get laid. To understand how hysterical this is, you have to know that South DESPISES whiney songs, and whiney is Ms. Amos’ middle name. (One can only hope an Alannis Morisette concert is in his future…)
I laughed, though, when South said you weren’t allowed to bring your own food or drink to the club. Well, duh. That’s cuz Tori provides enough whine for the entire room.
Bob Writes:
Mike: Nice deconstruction on the Tera lawsuit. Frankly, I was kind of a Tera fan. But I’m also a fan of the nitty-gritty of litigation, and the details of this one are more of a turn on than Island Fever.
The thing I’m most amazed at in porn is how a popular girl leaves porn, and they’re replaced like that in the minds of fans. Tera’s gone. Oh, well. There’s any number of pretty girls who take their place without missing a beat. I think that’s something that the Tera’s of the world need to keep in mind. Jenna seems to be the only contemporary porn chick who’s been able to turn herself into a household name, and I think Jenna could disappear and no one would miss her either.
Keep doggin’ the story.
Yep the truth is that “porn stardom” is pretty much just in anyones head. I can remember when there werent 20 girls in the entire biz, now theres that many shooting their first scene every day.
Why is Digital Playground Still Advertising in AVN?:
It looks to me as though Tera has bought ad space.
I totally don’t get the article that AVN ran about the litigation between Tera and Digital Playground, Since I basically broke this whole story and have stayed on top of it even after it played out I feel I have a right to insert my two cents now that AVN has dug it up again.
The first thing I notice is Tera’s image and name at the top of the article. The second thing I notice is the reference to Official Tera Patrick Dot Com at the bottom of the opening photo and every other photo in the article. AVN’s support of Digital Playground is certainly not clear on page one and as the article continues, the support becomes more ambiguous. An unbiased account of the facts would give equal representation to both plaintiff (Digital Playground) and defendant (Linda Ann Hopkins). AVN’s article doesn’t even clarify who is the plaintiff and who is the defendant.
There’s an entire paragraph devoted to a little PR for Evan and his fourth rate band “Biohazard” that seems somewhat out of place until you consider that Biohazard drummer Danny Schuler is reportedly a sometimes porn scribe for other porn magazines who writes under the name Danny Sage. Obviously Schuler has some friends in porn, one who leaked this little known fact to me.
AVN lends legitimacy to many of the defendants claims. In paragraph 2, AVN writes, “after more than 30 titles and countless magazine layouts, Patrick, who was about as close to an overnight sensation in porn as there is, signed with Digital Playground…” The 30 titles and countless magazine layouts were not originally starring or featuring “Tera Patrick.” They were filmed under a compilation of aliases including Sadie Jordan and Brooke. After Digital Playground made Tera Patrick a household name, video and magazine companies changed their boxes and photo sets to credit “Tera Patrick”, thus capitalizing on DP’s marketing efforts. In paragraph 3, AVN writes, “The fight for Tera’s name has been going on for a year now.” This is not true; Tera filmed Island Fever 2 in September and October of 2002 and Digital Playground did not file suit against Linda Hopkins until January of 2003. AVN’s statement also seems to imply that “Tera Patrick” is in fact Tera’s name. It isn’t, as a matter of fact the only person who could lay a claim to that name officialy might be Carmen Elektra whose real name is Tara Patrick….Co-inky Dink? I doubt it.
AVN references Hopkin’s (Tera’s) personal bankruptcy filing but fails to mention that this particular tactic is one used to break legally binding contracts in the state of California because with the discharge of her debts are also discharged contractual obligations. This was clearly a move recommended by Hopkin’s attorney to get her off the hook regarding her contract.
The article goes on to contradict itself many times, almost as much as Tera contradicts herself. In one sentence it is noted that the couple “appears broke” then three paragraphs later it says “Patrick is busier than ever shooting magazine layouts and promotionals, doing personal appearances and hosting an internet talk show, (fact is she doesn’t even host it, Evan does, she is the cohost, Evan sits at the mic.) so if she is doing all this work how can they be broke? and what of Evan’s money from Oz and Biohazard? A little tidbit that was overlooked is that Tera is now preparing to book out as a feature, something she said she would NEVER do, word on the street is they really ARE out of money and Evan, being faced with her fucking other guys or dancing decided that she would dance.
The article later brings up and credits Tera with appearances in both Penthouse and Playboy and while Tera gets SOME credit because it is her looks it is also Digital Playground who refined her look and set up these “credits” for her.
AVN does point out that Tera nor her attorney could produce a contract that disagreed with the one that Digital Playground provided to AVN, a contract that said nothing about residuals or website profits, both points that Tera is trying to claim she is owed money on. AVN goes on to quote the ridiculous figure of 300,000 dollars per month in revenue for terapatrick.com. That’s a figure that even the most liberal interpretations of her website traffic could never support, numbers show that her site at best, only ever had five hundred members or so.
Tera claims the contract was signed under duress on an airplane but AVN correctly points out that that information is easily identifiable through plane ticket reciepts and dates, the dates point to the fact that they were signed in DP offices just prior to a Terashow broadcast on which she announced having just signed.
Tera goes on to accuse Samantha Lewis of forging her bank account statements and other illegal activities that would clearly be verified by finding out if Samantha was a signatory on the account.
I knew much of Tera’s past long ago, the fact that she lies compulsively, a fact evidenced throughout this article, she said she would never cheat on Evan but fact is she shot Island fever 2 in September and October of 2002 Thats after she and Evan had declared thier undying love for each other…There’s lots more and anyone in porn knows that DP really did have to babysit Tera to keep her from lying to reporters and other porn people about her Llama Farm or her Ford Modeling Contract both complete falsehoods, DP didn’t like having to do damage control after Tera did that kind of stuff. They also had to babysit her to make sure that she made her appearances on time, dressed appropriately and was mentally sound, can’t blame them for that, but everyone at AVN knows these things, of course it wasn’t pointed out, nor did they even question Tera about it.
AVN makes a big deal of Tera proclaiming “How can anyone own someone elses name”…thats funny considering Tera Patrick isn’t her name but a play on Carmen Elektra’s real name, and while Tera may or may not have originally owned it she clearly signed ownership over to Digital Playground in the contract. Again AVN doesn’t point out that Tera Patrick is not her name.
Evan has to open his pie hole and pipe in that Tera was only paid 4,000 dollars a month but Tera states in the article that DP withheld her rent on an apartment that Samantha’s sister leased for Tera and other expenses and that in 18 months she had only saved 91,000 dollars. Hello… Y’all it dont take a mathmatical genius to see through that lie.
The most challenging and uncountered statements came from Evan himself who accuses Digital Playground of laundering money through Tera’s bank account. That’s clearly defamatory and AVN didn’t even ask him to back that statement up.
The bottom line here is that you have Linda Anne Hopkins, a virtual nobody untill Digital Playground spent a lot of money promoting her as Tera Patrick, they deserve a return on that investment and they certainly are within their rights to prevent her and others from capitalizing on all of their marketing and promotional expendatures to accomplish that. Tera signed a contract recognizing that fact and now because Evan doesn’t want her doing porn she wants out of the contract, but she wants to keep the benefits. She shouldn’t be able to have it both ways. If it really is her who is the star she can do it all over with another name, use Sadie Jordan or one of the other previous names, after all Tera Patrick never had fake tits, Linda Anne Hopkins now does…So start over and lets see your game, if you “made Digital Playground” as you claim why can’t you “make” Sadie Jordan or whomever? Or is it that she actually recognizes that Digital Playground made Tera Patrick somebody and Tera Patrick made Linda Anne Hopkins somebody that Linda could never make herself.
I am somewhat surprised by AVN’s slant on this, it almost read like one of Tera’s bullshit sob stories about how her father died in a plane crash or whatever….I’m not the biggest Digital Playground fan on the planet despite a date with Jesse Jane…the DPTonight show is technically horrible and as far as Nic Andrews goes…I have seen better film on teeth, but on this one It’s all about responsibility, something AVN flat neglected. If I were DP I’d want some anwers from more than just Tera.
Speaking of Tera-less:
She and Evan missed their first show on KSEX in weeks….said they were stuck in traffic…whats the chances they will show up on Wankus’ flake list?
Wicked is Vehemently Denying any Rumors that a deal has been struck with LFP:
But this rumor persists….and where theres smoke, theres fire…or so I hear anyhow.
