Tennis Star Files Lawsuit Over Topless Photos

NEW YORK -- A Russian tennis star claims in a federal lawsuit that GQ magazine allowed topless photographs of her to appear in a Russian magazine without her permission.

Anastasia Myskina, the winner of this year's French Open, is suing GQ and its photographer, saying she never intended for two shots of her appearing shirtless to be published anywhere, her attorney said Saturday. The lawsuit was filed Friday in Manhattan federal court.

The photos were taken by photographer Mark Seliger for a spread in the October 2002 GQ edition, and one approved photo of her fully clothed was published along with a profile of the tennis player.

Myskina's lawyer, Alexander Berkovich, said his client retained the right to approve the photos prior to publication and resale was not permitted in the contract.

"These were photos were taken in a closed environment and this was not the arrangement," he said.

Berkovich described Myskina as "very upset."

The lawsuit for a total of $8 million in damages against Seliger, GQ and its corporate parent Conde Nast alleges that Seliger sold the photos to Medved magazine and that GQ failed to stop him.

"The photos published in the July/August 2004 issue of the Medved are highly embarrassing and have caused Ms. Myskina great emotional distress and economic harm and injury to her reputation," she says in the lawsuit filed in Manhattan Federal Court.