(Hollywood Reporter) Weighing free speech against privacy, a Florida jury has decided to uphold the sanctity of the latter by turning in a $115 million verdict against Gawker over its 2012 posting of a Hulk Hogan sex tape.
Hogan brought the case three years ago after witnessing how Gawker, a 13-year-old digital news site founded by Nick Denton, an entrepreneur with an allergy to celebrity privacy, published a video he claimed was secretly recorded. The sex tape was sensational, showing the wrestler whose real name is Terry Bollea having a sexual relationship with the then-wife of his best friend, a radio shock jock known as Bubba the Love Sponge. Gawker's posting of the Hogan sex tape was accompanied by an essay from A.J. Daulerio about celebrity sex and a vivid play-by-play of the encounter between Hogan and Heather Cole.
