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Matthew
Hooker
Articles
'Stalker' sues Kidman for $373m
(Credit:
The Sydney Morning Herald)
A
man accused by Hollywood star Nicole Kidman of stalking
her has launched a $US200 million ($A373 million)
dollar lawsuit against the actress and more than 80
reporters and news companies, court documents showed
today.
Matthew
Hooker filed the libel action in Los Angeles Superior
Court on Friday after the Australian star a year ago
filed a restraining order against Hooker to keep him
away from her and her children.
The
actress claimed Hooker, 41, was ''stalking me and
my family and I am fearful for our safety and security,"
according to her May 7, 2001 application for a restraining
order.
A
Los Angeles judge granted Kidman an injunction ordering
Hooker to stay away from the ex-wife of superstar
Tom Cruise for three years.
But
Hooker alleged in his 123-page suit that the allegations
against him were made ''for the express purpose of
providing defendants with publicity for the actress
Kidman and the two films Moulin Rouge and The Others."
Hooker
also claimed that news stories about the legal tussle
were inaccurate as the portrayed him as ''mentally
unstable or disturbed ... a threat to women everywhere
... dangerous and violent ... (and) a perverted stalker."
He
alleged that Kidman and the news organisations had
received ''ill-gotten profits from the enormous amount
of very valuable publicity" that the story generated.
He
named a host of news companies, including the New
York Daily News and its boss, News Corp chief Rupert
Murdoch, his 20th Century Fox company, the Los Angeles
Times, India's Hindustan Times, Microsoft Corp and
its chief Bill Gates and Britain's Guardian newspaper
as co-defendants.
Hooker
claimed in the suit that, far from being an unstable
stalker, he was in fact a ''handsome, cultured (and)
civilised" man. His website said he would run
for the office of the president of the United States
in 2004.
Hooker
demanded $US20 million ($A37.28 million) in damages
as well as ''all of the gross receipts" from
Kidman's two 2001 hit films, the musical Moulin Rouge,
for which she won a best actress Oscar nomination,
and spooky thriller The Others.
Kidman
alleged in her application for a restraining order
last year Hooker had turned up at her home twice and
was sending her letters, the court papers showed at
the time.
''He
has mailed me letters and contacted me by phone,"
she claimed, adding that he had allegedly offered
to tutor her children, Conor and Isabella, in order
to give him a chance to get to know Kidman."
Kidman's
celebrated 10-year marriage to Cruise had collapsed
just four months before she applied for the restraining
order. The pair were divorced in August of last year.
Profiles
Stalkers
Nicole
Kidman
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