Former pro wrestler Hulk Hogan has
sued Gawker again, saying the gossip website
leaked sealed court documents with a transcript
that quoted him making racist remarks.
Hogan's new lawsuit on Monday comes on the
heels of winning a $140m verdict against
Gawker after it posted a video of him having sex
with his then-best friend's wife. The three-week
trial was a lurid inside look at the business of
celebrity gossip and a debate over
newsworthiness versus celebrity privacy.
Gawker denies that it leaked the sealed
transcript to the National Enquirer. In the
transcript, Hogan makes several racist
statements about his daughter's ex-boyfriend,
who is black. Once the Enquirer published the
story, WWE severed its longtime ties with the
famous wrestler.
The suit in Pinellas County Court also accuses a
talent agent, two disc jockeys, a radio company
and a lawyer of conspiring to send media outlets
the sex tape and causing Hogan emotional
distress and economic harm.
"Mr. Bollea said from the beginning that he
would seek to hold all persons and entities fully
responsible for their wrongful actions," his
spokeswoman, Elizabeth Traub, wrote in a
statement. "This lawsuit seeks to do just that."
The latest in the lawsuit saga
The court filing was the latest chapter in a long
legal saga for Hogan, Gawker and others.
"This is getting ridiculous," Gawker wrote in a
statement. "Hulk Hogan is a litigious celebrity
abusing the court system to control his public
image and media coverage. ... It's time for Hulk
Hogan to take responsibility for his own words,
because the only person who got Hulk Hogan
fired from the WWE is Hulk Hogan."
Gawker is seeking a new trial, saying the jury
didn't hear all of the evidence or from Clem.
Monday's lawsuit also names Tampa radio DJs
Mike "Cowhead" Calta and ex-DJ Matt "Spice
Boy" Loyd, among others.
Hogan says Calta and Loyd wanted to cause
him "substantial economic harm" while
furthering their broadcasting careers while they
worked at Cox Radio, which is also named in
the suit. The radio station didn't immediately
return a telephone message.
Loyd, who no longer works for Cox, didn't
immediately respond to a Facebook message. A
telephone number couldn't immediately be
located.
Previously, Calta was part of Clem's on-air
coterie, but they had a falling out.