DUPAGE COUNTY, Ill.—Former porn queen Jenna Jameson probably wishes she had shown up to the 2011 screening of her movie rather than pull a no-show in order to celebrate Perez Hilton's birthday, but then again, she didn't show up to a court hearing on the matter Tuesday, and didn't bother to send a lawyer in her stead, either.
The result? "A DuPage County judge Tuesday ordered Jameson to pay the breach-of-contract damages for spurning the March 2011 paid appearances at theaters in Naperville and Woodridge," reported the Chicago Sun-Times.
Jameson is now on the hook for $92,000. It could have been much worse. Last year, thanks to a new lawyer, she "caught a break ... when Associate DuPage County Circuit Court Judge Patrick J. Leston vacated a default judgment he had entered a week earlier against Jameson, paving the way for an out-of-court settlement." The original sum sought by the plaintiff in the case was about $300,000.
The case stems from schedule screenings of 2008’s Zombie Strippers!, which she appeared in, to take place in March 2011 at the Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville, Ill., and Hollywood Boulevard Cinema in Woodridge. Jameson said she had to cancel because she was sick. But the owner of the theaters, Ted E.C. Bulthaup III, filed suit after he found out that she had attended a birthday party for celebrity blogger Hilton on one of the days when she was supposed to be sick.
According to a local news report at the time, “Bulthaup said his company sold hundreds of advance tickets to the screenings; paid Jameson, her agent and personal assistant to travel to the Naperville-Woodridge area; and ‘invested thousands of dollars in advertising [and] dedicated hundreds of employee hours to making the weekend's events a success,’ the suit stated. Her appearances would have generated ‘tens of thousands of dollars in revenue’ for the cinemas and Jameson, according to the litigation.”
The Sun-Times is reporting that "Bulthaup had sought about $290,000 in damages, including $42,000 to cover the cost of her airfare, refunded movie tickets and lost food and beverage sales from her appearances. But he also asked for nearly $250,000 to compensate for publicity that he said would have been generated by her appearances at his theaters."
The vacating of the default judgment looks to have saved Jameson a lot of money, to say the least, but the two parties were apparently unable to come to a settlement.
Tuesday, the judge awarded $50,000 for lost publicity and another $42,000 for ticket refunds and other expenses incurred by Bulthaup. His lawyer said, “We’re satisfied with the result,” but as the Sun-Times noted in conclusion, "It’s not clear how easily the damages can be collected from the actress, who lives in California."
