Saddle Ranch heckler goes forward with his lawsuit against Bristol Palin and Lifetime.

Courtesy of E Online:

 Hanks claims that Palin defamed him by suggesting in an interview that he was the reason she moved back to Alaska, and he objects to his image being used in promos for the upcoming Lifetime series, Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp. 

A source close to Bristol confirmed to E! News that the single mom has been sued and will move to get the lawsuit thrown out. Bristol's camp is convinced Hanks planned all along to heckle the 21-year-old to get attention, the source said, noting that Hollywood TV shares a parking lot with Saddle Ranch, the bar where it all went down. 

(That kind of made ME suspicious as well. Suspicious that this was all a setup for the reality show that is.)

"Instead, she confronted him," and he's mad about how he came off in the video, the source added. 

As for Hanks being angry that he has shown up in Life's a Tripp promos (Lifetime's cameras were following Bristol at the time, as well), his attorney exclusively told E! News that no one ever asked Hanks to sign a release. (I find this part hard to believe.)

Lawyer Michael Gulden said that his client was unaware that anyone was filming them until Bristol left Saddle Ranch with cameras in tow, and was later told by management that her crew had permission for limited filming of Bristol and her friends. 

Hanks spoke to Lifetime parent A&E about the allegedly unlawful use of his image, Gulden said, adding that the network was ultimately unresponsive and they had no other choice but to file suit. 

Hanks is suing for unspecified damages, alleging defamation, invasion of right to privacy, intentional infliction of emotional distress and misappropriation of right of publicity. 

"He felt this was the only way he could protect his rights," the attorney added. Hanks was "simply a patron at the bar." 

"He was with friends when he observed that Bristol was on the mechanical bull," Gulden told us. "And several of the bar patrons began to talk about their general dislike of the politics of the Palins." 

After falling off the bull, Bristol approached Hanks and asked him, on camera, if he was "a homosexual" after he informed her that he wanted her mother to go to hell. 

Hanks asked Bristol why she assumed he was homosexual, and she replied, "Because I can tell you are." And, gesturing to a male companion, "That's a nice wife you've got there." 

"Nice wife you've got there?" How did I miss THAT nasty comment?

But I certainly did, and if you listen closely at the 2:29 mark you can hear it too.


If this is legitimate, and I have been wrong all of this time, that is a fairly stunning piece of tape.

According to my daughter a number of things are out of whack here.

Number one the set they were filming on, the Saddle Ranch in this instance, should have been closed to the public (or at least the portion they were filming in should have been), while they were filming.

Number two the producers of the show should NEVER have allowed their "star" to approach this strange man like that without stopping her or having a security person close by to intervene if things got physical.

And number three the minute Mr. Hanks was caught on film he should have been approached by the producers to secure his permission to use the footage that contained the confrontation. It is almost impossible to imagine they would have let him leave without talking to him and getting a signed release. And in the time since then not to have done it seems like malpractice on the producers part.

If Hanks is being honest I am unable to understand HOW he could have not noticed the lights and cameras situated only few feet from him,  The guy is an agent, SURELY he has seen a camera crew before.

Something still feels hinky about this, but apparently the lawsuit is real and you can see the documents for yourself by clicking here.

If this is, as we have suspected, a publicity stunt it is a poorly conceived one. NOBODY looks good here. Not the heckler, Stephen Hanks, who comes off as an inarticulate asshole. Not Bristol, who comes off as a thin skinned raving bitch.  And not Lifetime, who seems to have acted in an incredibly unprofessional manner throughout this entire debacle.