Judge to Britney Spears: You Lose

Britney Spears and her dancer-cum-husband Kevin Federline filed a lawsuit against US Magazine back in December 2005 because they published an item in their Hot Stuff column with the heading: "Brit & Kev: Secret Sex Tape? New parents have a new worry: racy footage from 2004." The couple says there was no such tape and wanted $10 million in damages in the libel suit.

The lawsuit stated, "The article is libelous on its face, since it maliciously and recklessly portrays [Spears] as acting 'goofy' while watching" the video with their attorneys ... "because the sex tape in question didn't even exist in the first place, the item was 'a despicable work of fiction comprised of blatant lies from beginning to end.'" Got that?

Judge Lisa Hart Cole, who heard the case, decided that because Britney has "put her modern sexuality squarely, and profitably, before the public eye, it is not defamatory to suggest that she and her husband made a video depicting them engaged in consensual sex. It is clear that plaintiff did not bring this lawsuit because she was falsely accused of acting goofy," Hart Cole said in her ruling this week, and dismissed the case.

I guess K-Fed's going to have to continue to, cough, cough, work for a living.

Photo from E! Online.