Hoffman Sues Over Cross-Dressing

A magazine has got itself into deep water over the publishing of a picture of Dustin Hoffman's head on the body of a cross-dressing man. Unfortunately for them, the 'deep water' part has set them back a tidy $270,000 - a sum they were ordered to pay for the actor's legal fees. They might count themselves lucky however, as the figure was considerably less than the $415,000 Hoffman's attorneys had sought from Los Angeles Magazine. "The judge cut their attorneys' fees back significantly and we were pleased about that," said Julie Hoover, a spokeswoman for ABC Inc., the magazine's parent company. Hoffman, 61, sued over the March 1997 fashion layout in which his face, as it appeared in the 1982 cross-dressing comedy Tootsie, was digitally imposed onto the body of a male model wearing a yellow evening gown and heels. Hoffman sued for violation of publicity rights, claiming that the magazine's publisher, Fairchild Publications Inc., and its parent turned him into an unpaid fashion model.