The mother of a five-year-old toddler pageant star has filed a $30 million libel suit against three media outlets, claiming they “brazenly attempt[ed] to sexualize” the child, “claiming she was gyrating in a nightclub and singing about her sex appeal.”
The child is a star on the Discovery Channel’s “Toddlers and Tiaras” program.
The suit contends the media outlets falsely characterized the child as sexual, erotic, and provocative for singing “I’m Sexy and I Know It” on a videotape. She was harmed, the suit alleges, directly through the loss of funding for a contract for her “Glitzy Jewelry.”
Source: Kevin Deutsch, “‘Toddlers & Tiaras’ mom sues media outlets,” New York Daily News, January 25, 2012
Maureen Martin, a former legal fellow at The Heartland Institute, passed away on February 5, 2013.
