Verne Troyer settles sex tape lawsuit for $20m

Washington, July 20 : American actor Verne Troyer has settled a lawsuit, against the distributor and website which published his sex tape, for 20 million dollars.

The footage, which featured Troyer's ex girlfriend Ranae Shrider, had hit the Internet last month (Jun08), and the actor was successful in his fight to have the tape removed from celebrity website TMZ.com, which had posted the video.

He had sued the website and Kevin Blatt, of distributor SugarDVD, claiming they violated his rights by publishing clips from the film, and he finally settled the case on Friday (18Jul08).

"We achieved our goal," Contactmusic quoted Troyer's attorney Edwin McPherson as saying.

However McPherson stated that Troyer's battle over the tape is far from over, as he will have to amend another lawsuit against Shrider at a hearing on Monday (21Jul08) in a bid to prevent her from releasing the tape.

Shrider has confessed to deliberately handing the video over to the media, claiming she acted in revenge after the Austin Powers star allegedly cheated on her, which the actor denies.

She also defended her right to release the footage, insisting the tape was recorded on her video equipment and that she is a partial owner.

ANI