UPDATED: More Details From Today’s Hulk Hogan/Gawker Lawsuit Proceedings

UPDATE: After Hulk Hogan stepped down from testifying, a juror asked for a clarification of the time between the release of the still photos and the Gawker publication of Hogan’s video.

They next played a video deposition from former TNA Vice President of Publicity Jules Wortman. The early portion of her deposition was explaining her background in publicity, where she worked and how she came to work for TNA for 18 months. She then was asked and discussed Hogan’s role in the company. Wortman said that nationally, outlets wanted to talk to Hogan not other stars, who would be used for more local publicity, naming Jeff Hardy and Kurt Angle as examples. She noted that the news program “Hannity” canceled Hogan from an appearance after the sex tape came out. She noted that Hogan did not want to talk about the sex tape and told her his other publicist would cut deals so he wouldn’t have to discuss it but Wortman said she didn’t do that. Wortman said she told Hogan to hit the “reset button” and refuse to discuss the topics, but he didn’t follow that advice. She relayed a story about Hogan being upset after an appearance with Kathy Lee Gifford and Gifford consoling him because she understood what it was like having life play out in the public eye. In regard to the Howard Stern appearance, Wortman commented that she thought an appearance on Stern doesn’t “go well for anybody.”

The next witness called was David Rice, a former staffer for the Bubba the Love Sponge show. They actually read a deposition he had previously given. He explained that installed the camera that filmed Hogan/Heather Clem for Bubba and that the camera had to be turned on to record and then a blank DVD had to be placed into a DVD recorder and record had to be pressed on the machine. He learned about the Hogan/Heather tape after leaving Bubba’s show when The Drudge Report website linked to the Gawker video.
The next witness, via video deposition, was from Tony Burton, who contacted Gawker.com’s AJ Daulerio offering him the Hogan/Clem tape. Daulerio is the author of the story that accompanied the video clips Gawker published. Burton is a talent agent. He said his client knew someone who had the sex tape. He stated he did not ask for money from Daulerio in exchange for the tape, nor did he instruct him what to do with the tape.

Hogan’s attorneys then showed a NBC News profile on Gawker’s Nick Denton, framing Gawker as a news site that broke rules and would go anywhere and “nothing was off-limits.”

The Plaintiffs then played a video deposition of Emma Carmichael, who was the managing editor of Gawker.com at the time the Hogan tape was posted. She is now the editor in chief of Jezebel.com, which is owned by Gawker’s parent company. They discussed her personal background and what led to her hiring at Gawker.com in 2011. She was asked what sort of advice and instruction she received when she was given the position of managing editor. They received the DVD and watched it. It was edited under AJ Daulerio’s instruction. She said the final video featured full frontal nudity of Hulk Hogan but did not recall whether they had discussed including it on the video. She answered the same in regard to Hogan receiving oral sex and doing different positions. She said that she is anti-revenge porn and did not know who sent the DVD to Gawker.com. She said she did not know if anyone at Gawker.com tried to find out if the DVD was sent to them as a form of revenge porn. She acknowledged the camera that filmed the DVD was high up and that the subjects did not look to the camera. In an interesting exchange, Carmichael was asked about a story by the Tampa Bay Times about an employer who was filming his employees changing and showering. She said it would be OK for the Times website to post the video with proper editing, such as blurring and changing voices. She then acknowledged that they did no such changes to the Hogan video. She said if history was to repeat itself, she would post the Hogan video clip again. Carmichael was asked about getting the cease and desist from Hogan and acknowledged that she spoke with staff about receiving it. The editorial process was not to talk about Hogan’s sex tape while the legal department “processes” his “giant lawsuit.” The deposition then went through Internet traffic, trying to build Hogan’s case that they were after clicks to make money.

The next video deposition shown by Hogan’s side was John Cook, from Gawker.com. He was an Investigate Editor. When asked what that meant, he said he was a reporter. He came to the site because he was a fan of the site and Nick Denton and thought that it was the type of place where his reporting would work well. After he left Gawker.com, he worked for 8 months as a Senior National Reporter for Yahoo.com and then decided to return to Gawker.com. He wanted to return and they offered him a job, where he was elevated to Editor In Chief. He spoke about a workplace email chain where they joked about a Hogan sex tape with Megan Fox after they learned of a story about a Fox tape that didn’t exist around the time they were going to publish the Hogan tape. Cook was asked whether there was any concern on his part that publishing the tape was going to have a negative effect on Hogan’s emotional well being. He responded, “The answer to that is no.” They asked him about a joke about Hogan’s penis wearing a do-rag being sent to another writer via email, which led to a discussion about whether it was Gawker policy or appropriate to send other employees photos of penises. He said that in this instance, it was.

That was it for today’s proceedings.

Credit: PWInsider

ORIGINAL: Yesterday Hulk Hogan took the stand, and answered questions form his legal team and was also cross examined by Gawker’s attorneys. Hogan took the stand again today as the cross examination continued, here are the highlights…

* Hogan was questioned about the women he was with around the time of his divorce from Linda. Clips were played where Hogan bragged about all of the women he had been with. Hogan admitted to being in character and that he embellished in regards to the women he was with.

* He was asked if TMZ invaded his privacy, because they asked him about his personal life, and Hogan said that discussing his thong tan lines were not an invasion, but that the way he was filmed, as Terry Bollea, was. Joking about his butt and talking wrestling is fine, but being recorded when he has no knowledge is crossing a line.

* They apparently played the wrong clip for Hogan earlier, and then played a tape of Hogan talking about the sex tape with TMZ. Hogan discussed knowing Mike Walters of TMZ, but says he does not remember asking him where TMZ got the tape or asking him to destroy it. he was questioned about not remembering the specifics of the interview they showed, and Hogan said that it’s impossible to remember interviews from years ago, especially considering he’s done thousands since.

* In regards to the TMZ interview, an email from Dixie Carter was brought into the line of questioning. Hogan couldn’t remember the dates well, and was allowed to read the email. The email contained Carter questioning him doing the TMZ interview, noting that it was below Hogan, didn’t help him and that she was surprised his lawyer allowed it. Carter said she was on his Team but was concerned about whether Rent-A-Center and other partners might be wary of him because of the press that the sex tape scandal would bring. She was also concerned that Hogan’s lawyer just wanted to get his own face out there and that publicity was her specialty and he needed to make the story smaller, not bigger. Hogan said that it wasn’t her specialty because she was a publicist 20 years before and there was lots of legal stuff that she wasn’t familiar with. He turned down her advice.

* Hogan was shown and recognized photos from Bubba the Love Sponge’s bedroom, but could not clarify if they were from time wise.

* Once Hogan discovered that still images form the video were leaked, he asked Bubba where they came from and Bubba blamed heather. Hogan believed him, and never tried to contact her because Bubba said she did it.

* They moved on to Gawker posting the story on the tape in October of 2012, which was during the New York media blitz for the TNA Bound for Glory PPV. He did the Howard Stern appearance, and when asked if he did all of his appearance, Hogan said that if it was on the itinerary, he did it and likely added appearances.

* After technical difficulties, they resumed the questioning. Questioning about the Stern appearance continued as Hogan was asked how often he had appeared on The Howard Stern Show and what he said on the show. Hogan said he was an entertainer on an entertainment show, and that he never told Stern the sex tape was not a legitimate topic of conversation. He knows that he has to deal with the good and bad.

* Hogan said that he did not say anything to Stern about not discussing the tape during the interview, as that would have been his publicists job. Hogan was then asked if he had his publicist go to Stern’s people and ask them to stay away from the topic of the tape and he said that he didn’t; know but said that such a thing would be standard protocol for a publicist.

* They showed a clip from the interview, where Stern asked if the tape was going to be incorporated into the storylines, which Hogan joked about and said that he hated the TNA name but could now embrace it. After the clip, Hogan again stressed that he was entertaining and making the best out of a bad situation. He knew Stern was joking, so he had to go along with it and have fun to make the best out of a bad situation. He again stressed that he was in character.

* Hogan was asked if he volunteered information, to which he claimed that he was just going through with the conversation. The lawyer said Hogan volunteered details on how aggressive he was in bed, and Hogan said he didn’t have a problem discussing it. When he got pressed, he just answered to get through so that he could get to promoting TNA.

* They then showed a clip from a previous Stern appearance, where Hogan said he would never sleep with another friend’s wife, even if they were divorced for a decade. Then they asked Hogan what happened and asked him if he was lying. He was asked if he was still friends with Bubba. Hogan said that they were, “Good friends.” Hogan again went back to the “in character/being an entertainer on an entertainment show” defense, noting that when on Stern you have to roll with it. Hogan was asked if he had went into protection mode and lied, and Hogan said that he is under oath and doesn’t lie. He said Hogan is a character and has said all sort of things like surfing on tiger sharks and that those are all lies (THE HELL YOU SAY!?) but that during that interview, he had to discuss whatever Stern wanted to talk about. When asked if it was ok to be dishonest in that setting Hogan said that he was an entertainer and took artistic liberties to protect himself, for Hulk Hogan to protect Terry Bollea.

* The original article on the tape from Gawker launched on October 4th, 2012. When asked if he had issues with TMZ posting stills from the tape, Hogan said that he did not know there was a complete tape until Gawker posted footage themselves. Prior to that he only knew that there was some footage out there. Hogan then claimed that TMZ got the same cease and desist letter that Gawker received. Hogan’s main issue is that Gawker put up video, and left up live for months and refused to remove it.

* When audio of an interview from TMZ was played, Hogan confirmed that was his voice.

* He was asked about Bubba the Love Sponge saying on the tape that he and Heather could retire based on the sex tape. Hogan said he learned about it during that TMZ interview, and was so upset that his body was shaking. He was on a break from media when TMZ called and revealed the news to him. It made him sick that Bubba was in on it, he was so upset that he thought he may have a heart attack and had to call his lawyer to calm himself down. He had to realize that Bubba was never his friend, and while he was stressed, had to move on. He was so upset because he felt Bubba was one of his only true friends left.

* Hogan says he never asked TMZ for a cop y of the tape, and said he had to talk about it to the media. He reiterated that they requested that Gawker take the tape down, but that they refused. Hogan said that there were claims that the tape was a media ploy, and that he was concerned that people thought he was in this for the money. His team got a call from Vivid after this, offering a blank check because they thought Hogan was involved from an entertainment perspective. He did not want people to think he was trying to make money off of this. He was also questioned of this was some sort of wrestling angle. Hogan again went with his you take the good and the bad, but his issue is that the tape was out, not taken down and will always be out there.

* They played a clip where Hogan talked about a radio show appearances, explaining that he was at an all-time low and finally agreed to sleep with her (Heather). When asked is he was telling the truth, he said that he was using “Hulk Hogan verbiage.” When pressed, he said he was telling the truth; he was at a low, bottomed out and had sex with Heather. He also added that she was no longer as persistent after they had sex the first time. Hogan said he’s never been the same since the incident/release of the tape.

* Hogan again spoke about being Hulk Hogan in public, and that he never speaks about being Terry Bollea. When asked about how he was affected by the incident, Hogan admitted that he never saw anyone for his emotional distress, not a doctor, not a counselor or a psychologist.

* Hogan was asked about wrestling being predetermined, and they actually talked about the Andre the Giant match. Hogan got his stuff in, noting that he didn’t know if Andre was going to play ball and be kind with him. He admitted that he couldn’t beat Andre straight up. Hogan was next asked about the term “work” in wrestling, and spoke about two guys working together to have good matches. When asked if the term can be used outside of wrestling, Hogan said yes, like “you guys are working together.”

* When asked if he was a celebrity and was a household name, Hogan said that he was and still considers himself one.

* We got clips from Hogan Knows Best, and the lawyer asked if this was proper to show. Hogan said that it was his TV show, ands not Terry Bollea, it was a storyline suggested by producers. Hogan said that he wanted fans to get involved in the show and not his marriage, but the final season of the show, it was obvious that he and Linda were having issues. Hogan then explained that the marriage counselor was not real and said that if they were on the show as Terry and Linda Bollea, they would have gone into some legitimate, private issues and it would have been a lot different then what the audience saw on the show.

* He was shown another clip and asked if this was an invasion of privacy. Hogan stated that there are artistic liberties when you are a character and it’s acceptable when it’s a TV show. Sure he was embarrassed to have his pants around his ankles, but it was for TV-14 in the timeslot and supposed to be funny. He said that the show did lead to Brooke getting her own show, where he did appear.

* Hogan was shown a copy of his book “My Life Outside the Ring.” He said that the book was a chance to make money as well as to show that he had changed; he wanted to share things with the public and hoped that they would be interested. The lawyer then discussed some passages from the book, where Hogan admitted to an affair with another woman (not Heather), noting that Hogan seemed comfortable with doing so. Hogan said it was part of the stuff going on in his life, stuff that he couldn’t write about in his WWE book.

* They showed footage from an old interview on Bubba’s show, where Hogan joked about his penis size. He said he did not have a ten-inch penis but they were discussing Hulk Hogan’s penis during the appearance. He came off annoyed, and tried to make it clear that he gave up privacy every time he left his house.

* We got a video of him on the Stern show, with his wife and kids. He was asked of he recognized his family, and he said that he did. Hogan said that as part of a media tour, they knew when they went to Howard Stern, what they were getting into, which he says every time. Hogan was then asked about material involving Stern saying he’d like to take Brooke’s virginity and Hogan responded that Stern was the “right height.” Hogan’s attorney’s objected and they muted the audio.

* After the lunch break, Hogan explained that when he discovered Bubba was behind the tape that his life was turned upside down. He was confiding in Bubba, who had told him that they would fight this together. He said it’s hard to narrow down the date when he discovered Bubba was behind it, but still has to deal with people bringing up the sex tape even today.

* Hogan then explained that he had gotten married (after Linda) and that life was going well until the sex tape news. He couldn’t sleep or eat and felt sabotaged. He couldn’t walk away from it, it was out there, his wife and kids knew, everyone knew.

* The New York media tour was booked months in advance, and that there was talk of canceling when the news came out. He wanted to move forward, promote TNA and not hide from it.

* Hogan explained that he defended Bubba during the promotional tour because he thought that there was no way he could do that to him. He reiterated that he did the Stern show because it gets him in the door to do other shows.

* They played a clip of Stern’s show where Stern praised Hogan’s manhood. Hogan was asked how he felt on the show; he felt tired and like he was going through the motions, he was on autopilot. When asked if his last book had images or a DVD f him having sex, he said no.

* He was again asked about Hogan Knows Best and walking around with the underwear around his ankles. He said it was an idea of the producers, similar to how they would film a scene in a legit film.

* Hogan was asked about TMZ and TheDirty.com posting photos; he didn’t mind the stories, but the photos being published did bother him. They were sent cease and desist and the photos were removed. He was then asked if other appearances he did during the BFG tour put the video or photos up. Hogan said that to the best of his knowledge, only Gawker did it; they were sent a cease and desist and Gawker refused to take them down.