""Basically, [Dr. Laura's] bent out of shape because we published photos of her." That, says Hustler publisher Larry Flynt, is the real reason radio psychologist Dr. Laura Schlessinger is suing a surf shop owner here over a Flynt publication she claims the owner allowed young people to see.
Schlessinger hit Beach Access owner Tom Moore with a million-dollar lawsuit earlier this month for calling her a liar publicly.
The battle began when Schlessinger objected to Moore's allowing a Flynt-published skateboarding magazine to be seen by young people and then accused Moore on the air of displaying Hustler in the disguise of the skateboarding magazine.
Moore denied that accusation and demanded an on-air retraction.
"We have problems like this across the country," Flynt tells the Los Angeles Times. "I am definitely sympathetic to what (Moore) is going through."
That includes sales at Beach Access dropping significantly since the battle with Dr. Laura began. Moore's attorney has suggested his client and Schlessinger meet to settle the dispute quietly but when the attorney called Schlessinger a liar, a Schlessinger spokesman tells the Times, that was the end of that idea.
Flynt maintains the Schlessinger-Moore imbroglio is a "misdirected attempt" by Schlessinger to hit Hustler back over nude photos of the radio host taken years before she became famous. Her spokesman tells the Times, though, that that was not the reason she objected to the magazine in the surf shop, because her desire to protect children is sincere.
