The Internet Virgins are going courting…as in, suit countersuit between the Los Angeles comedian/filmmaker who sought to present them last summer and the online simulcastor who backed out of the deal.
Ken Tipton, a one-time stand-in for John Candy, says he dreamed up the Web site as a prank last summer, and he has sued Internet Entertainment Group for breach of contract and defamation.
IEG has countersued for those charges plus an accusation that Tipton intended from the outset to "get rich" off the deal and defraud the public.
The site purported to be presenting a live Web performance of actual virgins engaging in sex, and IEG was scheduled to simulcast it.
Tipton's attorney Stan Lieber says the suit will seek only what he calls "tons of damages." IEG attorney Derek Newman tells AVN On The Net that the company has filed for a summary judgment on the evidence made available so far, and expects a ruling on that motion prior to a scheduled 30 August pre-trial hearing.
Lieber says he's hoping the court rejects that motion and brings the case to trial within a short time after the scheduled pre-trial hearing.
The online news service Wireless Flash says Tipton claims he intended the Internet Virgins site as a gag to prove journalistic laziness in probing sensationalized sex stories. But Newman says that Tipton never told IEG the whole thing was a hoax, and IEG stopped its plans for a simulcast when it realized the purported virgins were actually actors.
Tipton once worked as a stand-in for the late actor/comedian John Candy (on Wagons East, Candy's final film), and still performs standup routines periodically at such comedy clubs as the Comedy Store and the Groundlings.
He also has credits in television (a Rockford Files film and an episode of NYPD Blue, he says, among others) as well as films. The latter include work on such films as The Flintstones, Bye Bye Love, Unstrung Heroes, and Strangers Things.
But his major entertainment interest appears to be M.O.V.I.E. (Makers of Visual Independent Entertainment), for which he raises money primarily by selling assorted paraphernalia on the World Wide Web.
He says M.O.V.I.E. had taken on three independent film projects to date - Teddy and Philomena, Perfect Mate, and Eye of the Beholder. The last of these, he says, is based on his own battle to save his former independent video store ownerships from activists protesting Martin Scorcese's controversial The Last Temptation of Christ.
