Porn Star Stole My Name
Texas woman claims ex-classmate stole her name and became famous as a porn star.
July 12, 2007 — -- A Texas woman claims in a new lawsuit that an old high school rival took her name and did unprintable things with it in the porn movie industry.
Syvette Wimberly went to high school with 25-year-old Vivid Video sex siren Lara Madden in Houston. According to court papers, the two "were friends but eventually that friendship ended due to conflict."
The real Wimberly was devastated to learn that Madden appropriated her name as a stage name in porn videos with vulgar titles.
"If you just did a Google search on Syvette Wimberly, you'd come up with about 5,000 hits, most of them are [from] the adult videos,'' Wimberly's attorney, Caj D. Boatright, told ABC News.
"They're both 25-year-old girls, both from Houston, Texas, who went to same high school. And that creates a lot of confusion,'' he said.
Boatright said his client, a family friend, turned to him in frustration after receiving one too many e-mails and phone calls from friends and acquaintances asking about her life in porn. She originally learned of her name being used from another high school classmate who saw an online profile of the porn star.
"Within five or six minutes, an e-mail chain had started," he said.
It is just that kind of cyberproliferation that Boatright said continues to damage his client's reputation.
"She's a real nice, innocent girl and wants to be a mom and have a family and just doesn't want to be associated with the adult film industry.''
No Harm Meant?
Madden's attorney, Kent Schaeffer, said his client simply liked the sound of the name.
"There is no bad blood between them," Schaeffer told The Associated Press. "Lara never meant to harm this other girl."
He said his client has retired from the pornographic movie industry.
Boatright countered that beyond embarrassment, his client's safety is at risk from avid fans of Madden's.
"I don't think she wants the type of people who follow an adult film star around, or trying to meet her or get in contact with her,'' he said.
Schaeffer said the lawsuit wouldn't result in a payday for the real Syvette Wimberly.
"They'll never get a penny out of her,'' he told The Associated Press. "She doesn't have any money, for one thing, but even if she did this suit will never hold up in court."
Boatright said he wanted "to make very clear that my client does not want any publicity over this. We want this to blow over. Her goal is to get the use of her name stopped as quickly as possible and move on.''
The publicity surrounding the lawsuit may go along toward that goal.
In a Google search of "Syvette Wimberly'' Friday morning, July 13 -- 10 days after the lawsuit was first reported by www.thesmokinggun.com and picked up by The Associated Press -- eight of the top 10 entries are news or blog stories about the lawsuit.