NAPERVILLE, Ill.—Judge Patrick J. Leston of the DuPage County (IL) Circuit Court yesterday entered an order of default against former adult actress Jenna Jameson in a lawsuit charging that Jameson had breached a contract with two movie theaters to appear during showings of her movie Zombie Strippers. The ruling came in part because no one representing Jameson made an appearance in court for a hearing on the controversy.
The lawsuit was filed by Ted. E.C. Bulthaup III, owner of the Hollywood Palms Cinema in Naperville and the Hollywood Boulevard Cinema in Woodridge, who alleged that Jameson had entered into an agreement with his companies to make personal appearances at the theaters Thursday through Saturday, March 24-26, and to autograph photos of herself as well as 200 copies of her book How To Make Love Like A Porn Star. When the star failed to honor the contract, Bulthaup served Jameson with suit papers on May 24, seeking more than $50,000 in damages.
According to a story in the Naperville Sun, "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."
But although, according to Bulthaup, Jameson's agent had sent him a "vague doctor's note" wherein the actress claimed to have had a "medical emergency" which prevented her from attending the screenings, Bulthaup said he later learned that on March 26, Jameson was actually attending blogger Perez Hilton's 33rd birthday "Blue Ball."
"Numerous pictures of [Jameson] soon surfaced on the Internet, all of which appear to show [Jameson] in good health," reads one allegation in the lawsuit. "Simply put, Hollywood [Bulthaup's company] believes that [Jameson] was never ill. Rather, [Jameson] got an offer that she thought would be more fun and decided to leave Hollywood in the lurch."
But although Judge Leston entered judgment against Jameson for failure to defend against the action, he said that he would withhold formally entering the default judgment until Bulthaup had provided him with documentation regarding the financial damages his company incurred as a result of Jameson's failure to appear.
Attempts to reach Jameson for comment were unsuccessful.
