Punter claims her privacy was invaded

A woman who defended Joan Rivers against a heckler has now turned on the comic – suing her for invasion of privacy.

Anne Bogie briefly featured in Rivers’s documentary A Piece Of Work after she approached the stand-up backstage to lend her support.

But she later changed her mind, and claimed the 16 second clip ‘misappropriated her image’ and invaded her privacy.

Yesterday, an American appeal count threw out the lawsuit, saying Bogie voluntarily approached Rivers, in front of the cameras – which meant it didn’t matter that she didn’t sign a release form. It follows similar decisions involving members of the public who tried to sue Sacha Baron Cohen over the Borat film.

The short piece of footahe came after Rivers was heckled during a gig in Wisconsin over a joke she tells about deaf-blind activist Helen Keller.

A man in the audience yelled out that it wasn’t funny, as he had a deaf child,, prompting Rivers to berate him.

After the show, Rivers was approached by Bogie who told her that she ‘never laughed so hard’ and wanted the ‘rotten guy’ who heckled to leave.

Here is the incident that provoked the lawsuit (although Bogie’s comment isn’t included):

Published: 18 Jan 2013