Kim Kardashian sued for Twitter defamation

By Eriq Gardner

Kim Kardashian makes a lot of dough endorsing products on her Twitter feed, but might the cookie soon crumble?

The reality TV star is getting the Courtney Love treatment, meaning a lawsuit over allegedly defamatory statements she posted on Twitter.

The plaintiff in the case is a Miami doctor who created and markets a cookie diet and weight-loss program. Dr. Siegel's Cookie Diet has become a popular subject for celebrity news vehicles like Entertainment Tonight. In turn, Dr. Siegel's website links to these news articles and broadcasts in an effort to bolster its own legitimacy.

The appearance of an endorsement has upset Kardashian, who tasked her lawyers with demanding that Dr. Siegel take down the links. Kardashian's stamp of approval is worth a lot these days. According to recent reports, she earns up to $10,000-per-tweet, making her Twitter feed by some calculations worth more than any website.

According to Dr. Siegel's complaint, filed in Miami circuit court last week, Kardashian took it into her own hands to disclaim any connection with the cookie diet. In late October, she made two tweets:

• "Dr. Siegal's Cookie Diet is falsely promoting that I'm on this diet. NOT TRUE! I would never do this unhealthy diet! I do QuickTrim!"
• If this Dr. Siegal is lying about me being on this diet, what else are they lying about? Not cool!" 

Dr. Siegel now claims these statements failed to include the fact that Kardashian is a paid spokesperson for QuickTrim. Her Twitter feed has more than 2.7 million followers, and we'd be surprised if her lawyers weren't boning up on new FTC disclosure guidelines for celebrities and bloggers. Kardashian's $10,000-per-tweet endorsements, however, are hardly a secret.

The litigation in the oven is just getting hot. How did news outlets like Entertainment Tonight come to believe celebrities like Kardashian were eating to cookies to lose weight? We expect to see a countersuit soon with a possible answer.