| eHarmony.com sued for excluding homosexuals
LOS ANGELES, Calif. A Los Angeles woman has sued the popular online dating site eHarmony.com, claiming she was discriminated against based on her sexual orientation when the Web site refused to pair her with another woman. eHarmony was founded in 2000 by Neil Clark Warren, an evangelical with ties to Focus on the Family, and it has grown to more than 12 million registered users, according to Reuters. The lawyer for the woman, Linda Carlson, said the lawsuit was "about changing the landscape and making a statement out there that gay people, just like heterosexuals, have the right and desire to meet other people with whom they can fall in love." Carlson is urging fellow homosexuals to join the class action lawsuit geared toward forcing eHarmony to change its policy.
VH1 kicks up 'Flavor' with femme spinoff
VH1 is spinning off a female version of its No. 1 show "Flavor of Love." Cable network has greenlit production on 10 episodes of an untitled series from executive producers Cris Abrego and Mark Cronin that casts one of the eccentric contestants from the first season of "Flavor" in her own dating show. "Flavor" continues to rank as VH1's top-rated original series. A recent episode on Sept. 3 drew a big 3.23 million viewers (1.5 national rating/5 share in 18-49; 1.9/7 in 18-34). Similar to what ABC did with "The Bachelorette," VH1 will air the offshoot on its own next year, likely in the "Flavor" Sunday night timeslot. And, like "Flavor," the producers are casting a "diverse" selection of contestants; in the first episode of "Flavor of Love 2," two of the competing women got into a fistfight over a bed, and another defecated on Flav's marble floor.
L.A. grand jury issues subpoenas in Web suicide case
Cyber-bullying has become an increasingly creepy reality, with the anonymity of video games, message boards and other online forums offering an outlet for cruel taunts.
Former federal prosecutor Brian C. Lysaght said such a prosecution would be "not as much of a reach as it might appear at first glance." In recent years, he said, Congress has passed a series of statutes that make criminal conduct involving the Internet federal offenses.
Still, it could be difficult to draw the line between constitutionally protected free speech and conduct that is illegal.
Laurie Levenson, a professor at Loyola Law School in Los Angeles, said the idea of using a fraud charge to tackle the unusual case was "an interesting and novel approach."
"But I doubt it's really going to lead to the type of punishment people really want to see, which is this woman being held responsible for this girl's death," she said.
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