Star demands Playboy pull issue with her on cover

LOS ANGELES, Mar 3 (Reuters) Film star Jessica Alba demanded that Playboy magazine pull its March issue, saying that its editors made her an unwitting cover girl and misled readers into thinking they could see her nude inside.

Lawyers for Alba sent Playboy a letter threatening to sue if it did not remove the issue -- which features a publicity photo of the bikini-clad actress on the front -- from the stands and pay for damages to her reputation and career.

''Playboy has violated my personal rights and blatantly misled the public, who might think I had given them permission to put me on their cover when I didn't,'' Alba, 24, said in a statement yesterday.

Alba's lawyers say that after the ''Fantastic Four'' star refused to pose for Playboy, the magazine tricked Sony Pictures into giving them a publicity photo from her 2005 film ''Into the Blue,'' for the cover.

In the Feb. 23 letter, which was made public on the Smoking Gun Web site, attorney Brian Wolf says Playboy sought to create the false impression that Alba would appear in revealing pictures inside the magazine.

A Playboy spokeswoman said Alba was placed on the cover after being chosen ''sexiest star of the year'' by its readers. She was included inside the magazine in an article on the top 25 sexiest celebrities as chosen in an online poll.

''Many celebrities have appeared on the cover of Playboy, but not nude, including Claudia Schiffer, Paris Hilton, Goldie Hawn, Raquel Welch, Barbra Streisand, Brooke Shields and Donald Trump,'' Playboy spokeswoman Lauren Malone said.

REUTERS DH RAI0512