Icon Male, Nica Noelle, And Mile High Settle Lawsuit With Woman Whose Home Was Used To Film Gay Porn Movies
Well, seven billion years later, and it’s finally over. As Str8UpGayPorn first reported all the way back in March of 2018, a Massachusetts homeowner named Leah Bassett filed a lawsuit against porn conglomerate Mile High Media, the company’s VP Jon Blitt, Icon Male director Nica Noelle, and 25 gay porn stars for shooting gay porn movies in her Martha’s Vineyard home without her knowledge or consent. Today, I can report that Mile High has settled the lawsuit with Bassett after all parties met for an alternative dispute resolution via video conference. Unfortunately, all the terms (including any presumed payments) and details of the settlement were not disclosed and will likely remain sealed. Given that dozens of movies were filmed in the home over a two-year period, I’m thinking Mile High had to agree to pay Bassett at least something in the low six figures? Then again, does the company that owns a studio like Icon Male have that much money just lying around?
As you’ll recall, several defendants were removed from the suit while dozens of motions were filed over the last three years, and the suit was eventually pared down into a fairly straightforward copyright case, with Bassett seeking damages for each time one of her paintings in her home appeared in one of the porn movies shot by Nica Noelle. Bassett’s motion for summary judgment on the copyright claims was approved by the judge last year, and the dollar amount for each infringement (i.e., every time one of the paintings appeared in a scene) was going to be determined in a trial set to begin next month. I had planned on attending and covering the trial, so there goes my summer gaycation plans.
As fun as this was for me to report on, this suit should serve as a good reminder for content producers to not film commercial porn movies in other people’s houses unless you have their consent, or unless you want to spend thousands of dollars on attorneys while you’re embroiled in a multi-year lawsuit.
Str8Up has reached out to Bassett’s attorney to see if any of the settlement details can be disclosed, and this post will be updated if information becomes available.
