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Hulk Hogan’s $100 million sex-tape lawsuit against Gawker doesn’t go to trial until Monday, but a Florida judge has ruled the 61-year-old entertainer can wear a piece of his costume to court.
The muscled and mustached Hogan, known for his bandannas emblazoned with the “Hulkamania” nickname across his brow, will be able to wear one “plain bandanna,” Florida state court Judge Pamela Campbell has ruled.
If not quite the fashion statement his neon orange bandanna embodied during his wrestling days, at least the plain bandanna will protect Hogan’s bald pate from the intense sun outside the St. Petersburg, Fla., courthouse where the two-week trial will take place.
Campbell also ordered that the Hulkster be addressed in court by his real name — Terry Gene Bollea.
And, as an extension of her conduct code, she reminded both sides that the trial “is not going to be a carnival.”
“There will be judicial serenity and calm, to which the parties are entitled,” the Tampa Bay Times quoted Campbell as telling both sides while setting the trial’s ground rules.
Hogan (or is it Bollea?) sued New York-based Gawker after the snarky website published a two-minute “highlights reel” from a 30-minute sex tape that showed the former WWE star having sex with the wife of radio shock-jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem, once the wrestler’s best friend.
The Hulk’s legal team, which claims the video was shot without its client’s permission or knowledge, charges that its posting by Gawker was an invasion of privacy.
Gawker’s defense is that the Hulk has been dishing out details of his sex life for years. That was all before Gawker published anything, making it newsworthy and protected by the First Amendment, the defense maintains.
If the Hulkster wins and the jury, from his hometown, awards him anything close to $100 million, it could bankrupt Gawker.
Recently, Bollea’s legal team asked the court to block the media from seeing the tape during the trial. A number of media organizations are opposing that motion.
