Welp, today would be a pretty shitty day to be employed by Gawker, as it was just confirmed that the gossip-esque website is in the process of being slapped AGAIN by the long, lawsuit-loving dick of Hulk Hogan.
That’s right, the Hulkster is going after them once more in the court of law, just weeks after being awarded $140,000,000 from the media magnate after they allegedly leaked a sex tape of the former WWE superstar. It’s plausible that if Hogan collects another payday of that magnitude, Gawker may find itself bankrupt. Yikes.
This time, Terry Bollea – Hulk’s real name – is going after the website for leaking the shocking tape on which he can be heard repeatedly using the N-word while discussing his daughter’s relationship and sex-life with an African-American male. Gawker allegedly leaked the tape to the National Enquirer and Radar Online in July 2015, and we all know the shitstorm that arose from it.
Gawker all but confirmed that lawsuit on the horizon in this statement provided to Mashable:
This is getting ridiculous. Hulk Hogan is a litigious celebrity abusing the court system to control his public image and media coverage It was absurd enough that Hulk Hogan claimed $100m for emotional distress and economic damage for a story about a sex life that he’d already made public. Now Hulk Hogan is blaming Gawker for racist remarks he made on another sex tape, which Gawker never had. As we’ve said before and are happy to say again: Gawker did not leak the information. It’s time for Hulk Hogan to take responsibility for his own words, because the only person who got Hulk Hogan fired from the WWE is Hulk Hogan.
The New York Post provided a great outline of the backdrop for Hogan’s new lawsuit, in which the damages sought have not yet been made public.
In a 2007 encounter with his best friend’s wife, Hogan unleashed an ugly tirade about his daughter Brooke’s black boyfriend.
“I mean, I’d rather if she was going to f–k some n—-r, I’d rather have her marry an 8-foot-tall n—-r worth a hundred million dollars! Like a basketball player! I guess we’re all a little racist. F—ing n—-r,” Hogan said, according to a transcript of the recording.
WWE immediately fired Hogan, scrubbing his name from its website and Hall of Fame.
His “income was cut off, his legacy in entertainment was severely damaged (if not completely destroyed), and his global brand was forever tarnished,” the new Florida suit says.
Hogan says Gawker slipped the transcript, which was filed under seal in the then-pending suit between the two parties over a second sex tape with the same woman, Heather Clem. At the time, Clem was married to Hogan’s best friend, radio shock jock Bubba the Love Sponge Clem.
The National Enquirer published the story, which “Gawker had been threatening to release publicly for months,” in July, according to the suit.
Just as the Enquirer posted the damaging transcript online, Gawker CEO Nick Denton wrote a piece on his blog predicting that Hogan’s “real secret” would soon be revealed, the suit says.
Minutes later, Gawker editor A.J. Daulerio tweeted to Hogan “XOXOXO” with a link to the Enquirer posting that included the confidential transcript, according to court papers.
Hogan immediately admitted that he had made the offensive remarks and apologized.
In the new suit, Hogan is also going after a group of Florida residents, including another radio DJ named Mike “Cowhead” Calta, for sending at least one of his secretly recorded sex tapes to Gawker.
Law enforcement officials declined to pursue criminal charges against Calta and others involved in the alleged leak.
Gawker is appealing the $140 million jury verdict over the first sex tape and has denied that it leaked the sealed transcript to the Enquirer.
The new suit is for unspecified money damages.
But it’s safe to say that if Hulk Hogan is going after Gawker again, what he hopes to collect is no laughing matter.
[H/T Mashable]