HEATH Ledger has been described as a "drug addict" and "a known drug user" in a multi-million dollar lawsuit in Los Angeles.
The actor, who died in January from a cocktail of prescription drugs, is named in a court case about a scandalous video where he was secretly filmed snorting cocaine and talking about his drug habits as part of a controversial sting by paparazzi.
The legal action was launched by an American magazine reporter who is suing LA-based paparazzi agency Splash News over the sting, which was filmed in the woman`s room at Hollywood hotel Chateau Marmont on the night Ledger won a SAG award in January 2006 for his role as a gay cowboy in Brokeback Mountain.
In the footage, a guilt-ridden Ledger confessed that he was a regular drug user while his then-girlfriend Michelle Williams and their newborn daughter Matilda, now two, slept in an upstairs hotel room.
The reporter, who is known only as Jane Doe in court documents for fear her media career could be damaged, is suing Splash News owners Gary Morgan and Kevin Smith and two of the agency`s employees - Darren Banks and Eric Munn - for damages to her professional reputation and for emotional distress after she was revealed in the footage.
A 34-page document - filed with the Los Angeles Superior Court and obtained by News Ltd - said Munn, a reporter and videographer, and Banks, a paparazzo photographer, befriended Ledger in the hotel`s lobby late at night before inviting him to the woman`s hotel room.
The filing alleges the pair secretly set up a camera on the balcony outside the room before plying the actor with drugs and filming part of the seven-hour cocaine binge through the open window.
The woman, who was dating Banks at the time, maintains she objected to the sting and did not take drugs during the incident.
The reporter - who was at the hotel covering SAG after-parties for People magazine, the US sister publication of Australia`s Who magazine - is seeking undisclosed damages believed to be worth more than the $A1.04 million-plus ($US1 million) the agency is understood to have earned from global sales of the video to media companies.
The video was heavily edited to disguise the identities of the two Splash News employees before being sold to the highest bidder - US celebrity programs Entertainment Tonight and The Insider - for an estimated $A208,634 ($US200,000) to be first to show the footage the week after his death.
The video was also aired by Channel Nine in Australia.
The filing said Ledger, who was 28 when he died, was distraught when he discovered he had been filmed in an elaborate set-up.
"Mr Ledger became aware that he was being videotaped and became very upset," the filing said.
"He realised the two men he had been befriending all evening were paparazzi.
"Munn and Banks calmed Mr Ledger down, at which point Munn went out and bought Mr Ledger even more cocaine."
The document, which was filed last month (April), said Ledger became hysterical and emotional throughout the early morning when he realised the potentially devastating effects of the video on his family and film career.
"Throughout the evening Munn and Banks kept insisting to Mr Ledger and to plaintiff that they would destroy the tape and it would never see the light of day," the filing said.
"They gave Mr Ledger and plaintiff their word and eventually Mr Ledger calmed down.
"However, his calm state did not last for long - at least once an hour, for nearly seven hours, Mr Ledger would remember that he had been videotaped and got upset all over again.
"Several times, Banks took Mr Ledger out to the balcony to calm him down."
The filing said Ledger was exploited for financial gain by the agency, which chose not to release the footage before Ledger`s death after being given legal advice that the actor would have a strong case to sue - and would likely win a settlement worth millions - on the grounds of entrapment and defamation, as the reporter and photographer had invited him into the hotel room and provided the drugs.
After Ledger`s death, the agency were no longer at risk of legal action from the actor.
"Employees of Splashed drugged Mr Ledger, a known drug user, and then videotaped him without his consent for the purpose of damaging his reputation and to make money," the filing said.
"Defendants supplied Mr Ledger, a drug addict, with drugs for the purpose of exploiting him and to make money off his illness as a drug abuser."
Since Ledger`s death, his family has repeatedly denied that the Oscar-nominee was a drug user, despite widespread reports that the actor regularly took drugs, had struggled with addiction and had allegedly been admitted to rehab.
In the video, Ledger said he had regularly taken drugs every day for years.
The filing alleged that Splash News had told the media companies who purchased the video that the agency had bought the footage from a hotel guest and had not revealed that staff members had been involved in filming the video.
News revealed in early February that the video had been filmed as part of a controversial sting by paparazzi, who cashed in on the actor`s tragic death on January 22.
Sources close to Splash News said Banks and Munn were each paid $A52,160 ($US50,000) to stay silent about the creation of the video after it was sold following Ledger`s death.
The agency also allegedly paid for both men to go away on a luxury holiday overseas after the video was released in an effort to avoid media exposure of the sting.
The case is due to be heard in August in the Los Angeles Superior Court and will likely attract a throng of international media.
A former staff member said the agency would almost certainly settle out of court before the hearing because the company`s two owners would not want the questionable practices they employed to get stories to be revealed.
"They certainly would not want their dirty laundry aired in public," the former staff member told News yesterday.
Splash News was the agency whose staff filmed the exclusive video of a dying Anna Nicole Smith being wheeled out of a Florida hotel room - which reportedly earned the company millions of dollars and set the record for the highest amount paid for a celebrity video.
Paparazzi regularly hire rooms at top US hotels where celebrities are staying in an effort to illicitly gain access to stars - with photographers often shooting them without their knowledge and earning huge sums for the pictures.
At the exclusive Chateau Marmont - which zealously protects the privacy of its A-list clientele - people who are not guests are barred from entering the hotel in the evening.
The secret taping of celebrities as part of elaborate stings has come under fire in recent time, particularly in the UK following controversial exposes on celebrities including supermodel Jodie Kidd and members of the royal family.
Several UK news organisations have been heavily criticised for stings that saw them use questionable methods - including journalists posing as people who were offering business proposals - to expose celebrity drug use and unearth private information.
News is the parent company of the publisher of NEWS.com.au
