Woman's $1 Billion Travel Channel Lawsuit Tossed, But We Still Know She Was At Wiener's Circle
By Samantha Abernethy in News on Feb 22, 2012 11:20PM
An Illinois woman was dining at Lincoln Park's rudest hot dog shop Wiener's Circle while Travel Channel filmed an episode of Extreme Fast Food, but she must've been feeling a bit camera shy. Jennifer Zglobicki and others filed a $1 billion class action lawsuit against the Travel Channel, saying they never consented to be filmed while being insulted by Wiener's Circle staff. MSNBC writes:
Zglobicki showed up at the restaurant and endured the racy insults, but did she have to accept the reality TV cameras from the Travel Channel and the show's producer, Sharp Entertainment, filming the abuse? She didn't think so, asserting a claim under Illinois' Right of Publicity Act.
So what did the judge think? U.S. District Court Judge Charles Norgle in Illinois threw the case out of court, saying her image was "incidental" to a "subject of general interest and of value and concern to the public." Then Norgle got eloquent. The Hollywood Reporter writes:
The judge ends his opinion with a wise word of caution to everyone out there who might find themselves part of a reality TV show spectacle. To live life is to expose oneself. "The risk of this exposure is an essential incident of life in a society which places a primary value of freedom of speech and of press," he writes.
Watch the video from the Extreme Fast Food below.