THEDIRTY.COM GETS SUED FOR $50 MILLION OVER NAKED PICS!

A controversial website that has posted steamy nude pics of ESPN sporstcaster Erin Andrews and beauty queen Carrie Prejean is in hot water again for uploading photoshopped images of a naked Memphis news reporter, a new lawsuit charges.

Journalist Lauren Lee Gauck is suing TheDirty.com, accusing the flesh-peddling site of juxtaposing her images with that of a naked woman -- that she says isn't her.

The Chicago native is seeking $50 million in damages from the site and its reality-star owner, Nik Richie, the husband of "Bachelor" contestant Shayne Lamas.

A lawyer for Richie, whose real name is Hooman Karamian, told the Memphis Commercial-Appeal that his client is protected under federal communications law because the story wasn't posted by him, but rather one of the members of his "army" that he uses to send in and publish tips.

The law says that websites cannot be held responsible for content posted by users.

"If somebody posted something on Facebook that's defamatory, you can sue the author but you can't sue Mark Zuckerberg, who is the founder of Facebook," David Gingras said.

Gauck's lawyers say otherwise.

"The defamatory material is highly offensive to Ms.Gauck and would be highly offensive to a reasonable person," the complaint said, according to Forbes.com.

"Ms. Gauck enjoys a stellar reputation among her friends, family and acquaintances and is and was highly regarded by members of the community and by the viewing public in both Chicago and Memphis," the complaint said.

For the publicity-seeking Richie, the lawsuit may be right up his alley.

He's been sued in high-profile lawsuits before, losing one in August to an NFL cheerleader for $11 million and another one last year for $1.5 million. But he makes much of his money through banner ads as well as celebrity appearances at nightclubs, according to a 2010 Forbes.com profile of him.



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