The Phoney 15-year-old Prostitute
1998-11-16 17:52:00
Salon's doing a story on how the "Sally Jesse Raphael Show" is facing a lawsuit for hundreds of millions of dollars for allegedly "recruiting" a 15-year-old runaway to pose as a prostitute.
What's interesting is their take on the show's defense: "Talk shows are 'a distinct genre of broadcasting, with standards and procedures particular to the form....' " And the other side of the argument? The 15-year-old's lawyers "say she was minding her own runaway business in Los Angeles when a Sally producer offered her $200 to appear as a prostitute on TV, flew her to New York, put her in a mid-town hotel with a man named "Frostbite" (who was stoned on heroin and Valium and who appeared as Weber's pimp on the show....)"

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