LOS ANGELES - Celebrity sex-tape broker Kevin "KB" Blatt responded today to charges against him in a $20 million lawsuit filed by actor Verne Troyer, known for his role as "Mini-Me" in the "Austin Powers" movies.
The suit claims Blatt and co-defendants TMZ and SugarDVD violated the actor's privacy by publicizing a sex tape featuring Troyer and his former live-in girlfriend Ranae Shrider. Blatt maintains that he never possessed a copy of the tape and that he backed away from brokering the allegedly stolen video.
"They can come to my house, subpoena my computer hard drives, whatever they want," said Blatt. "They will see I don't have this tape. I never had it in my possession."
Blatt told AVN Online he had only seen footage from the 50-minute video.
"But it's not illegal to look at someone's tape," he said, adding that he believes Troyer's lawsuit is "baseless" and that he looks forward to "the real story coming out."
Court documents charge TMZ and Blatt with violation of privacy, copyright infringement, trademark infringement, violation of right to publicity and misappropriation of name and likeness.
"I get accused of enough shit that I actually do," said Blatt, who is known for his role in selling the Paris Hilton sex tape 1 Night in Paris. "I don't need to be involved in deals that are illegal."
Blatt said he was approached about the Mini-Me sex tape a few weeks ago by an unnamed party who told him that Troyer and Shrider had approved its release. While Blatt admits that he was "shopping" the tape at first, he insists that he did not leak the footage to TMZ.
"When I caught wind last week that Verne was not on board with this, I backed away," he said.
Blatt said he does not know who has the tape or who gave TMZ the 25-second clip that appeared Wednesday on TMZ.com and TMZ TV. SugarDVD announced on Thursday that it was willing to pay $100,000 for the tape, provided that Troyer and Shrider signed releases.
To date, nothing more than the 25-second clip has been released. If the tape is released, however, it would not be the first time Troyer appeared on camera in his birthday suit.
As a cast member on the fourth season of VH1's "The Surreal Life," Troyer was seen getting drunk on his first night in the house and steering his motorized scooter into the corner of the weight room, where he urinated while naked.
