Tony Parker Sues X17 For Affair Stories

Los Angeles, CA (CNS) - Tony Parker takes X17 online to court. The San Antonio Spurs player has filed a $20 million defamation lawsuit against the celebrity photo agency Wednesday in the Los Angeles Superior Court.

X17 online was the first to publish French model Alexandra Paressant's claim of affair with Parker. The site was also responsible for the copies of the text messages the two have allegedly sent to one another and other documents that supported her story.

The lawsuit states that X17 "had to know that the story was false, or at the very least, it had to have entertained serious doubts about the credibility of its supposed source."

It further adds that "Celebrities are easy targets - both for those who would seek their own fame and fortune by fabricating salacious stories about them, no matter how damaging or hurtful, and for those who make their living publishing these false and defamatory lies, no matter how patently baseless."

The allegations had caused Parker "substantial harm... in complete disregard for the truth and of even a semblance of journalistic integrity," writes attorney Stanton "Larry" Stein.

The suit also states that none of the company's reporters had verified the story through Parker's people before posting the article. No efforts were made to retract the story after X17 was informed that the story was false.

In response, X17 said in a statement to E! Online that its journalists "conducted extensive research for the reporting of this story." The gossip site felt it was definitely "significant and newsworthy" to deserve coverage.