The Winona Ryder case may be over, but the legal ripples continue. The latest litigant may be Ryder's friend Courtney Love. The former Hole frontwoman threatened yesterday to sue The Smoking Gun, the website that, over the weekend, published the California Medical Board report on Dr. Jules Lusman, whom the Board stripped of his license on Friday after citing him for overmedicating his patients, including several celebrities. Love's complaint: that the website identified her as the patient who was listed in the report as ''Ms. C.L.,'' whom the report said was prescribed such painkillers as Ambien, Xanax, and injectable Demerol by the doctor over a brief period in 2001.
The report refers to Ms. C.L. as a ''fairly well-known musician'' who was also known as Ms. C. L-C, having ''at one point been married to Mr. C., who had passed away.'' The report also contained an apparent reference to Ryder as patient ''E.T.,'' a ''well-known entertainer,'' age 29 when Lusman prescribed her at least five painkillers in 2001. In Ryder's probation report, also available at The Smoking Gun, Ryder is said to have used the alias Emily Thompson to obtain prescription drugs and is identified as a patient of Dr. Lusman. On Tuesday, the Los Angeles Times also cited two sources familiar with the Board investigation who identified ''C.L.'' as Love.
Love's lawyer wrote a four-page cease-and-desist letter to the website on Monday. ''My client, who is not shy about asserting her legal rights, has authorized the commencement of all necessary litigation if the Story is not immediately removed from your website,'' wrote attorney Paul Karl Lukacs. ''You have been warned. This is a matter of the utmost seriousness. Govern yourself accordingly.''
''I spoke to their lawyer, and what they're trying to argue is that the California Medical Board made an unauthorized release of information contained in her medical files,'' Smoking Gun editor William Bastone told MSNBC.com. ''But [Love's] history with narcotics is fairly well known.'' A note posted at Bastone's site says the Board report will remain posted.
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