Penthouse rues topless pics gaffe

Kournikova insisted the Penthouse photos were not her

Penthouse magazine faces two lawsuits despite issuing an apology after wrongly identifying pictures of a topless blonde sunbathing as tennis star Anna Kournikova.

It is being sued for $10m in damages by the wife of clothing company heir Rocco Benetton, who says the pictures are of her.

In over 30 years of publishing we have never made an error of anything approaching this magnitude

Penthouse

A representative of Kournikova's management agency announced on Tuesday it had filed charges against Penthouse, which is reported to be in severe financial difficulties.

"We deeply regret this unintentional error and offer our heartfelt apologies to both women," the magazine said in a written statement.

"In over 30 years of publishing this magazine we have never made an error of anything approaching this magnitude."

The June issue - with "Exclusive Anna Kournikova Caught Close Up on Nude Beach" on its cover - went on sale last week, and some 1.2 million copies are reported to be in circulation.

'Crocodile tears'

But the apology appeared to have made little impression.

Kournikova's representative said it "was as false as the photos".

While a lawyer for 28-year-old Judith Soltesz-Benetton accused the magazine of indulging in "crocodile tears", saying the apology was "about three weeks late and $10m short ".

Judith Soltsez-Benetton's husband Rocco (c) is son of fashion designer Luciano Benetton

Penthouse allegedly obtained pictures of Mrs Soltesz-Benetton sunbathing topless in Miami about seven years ago.

Her suit, filed on Monday, accuses the magazine of publishing a dozen photographs without her authorisation - causing her great embarrassment and humiliation.

In response, a US district court judge ordered the magazine to temporarily stop distributing the June issue to newsstands, and blocked it from putting the pictures on a website.

In its statement on Tuesday, Penthouse said that before publication it had examined the purported images of Kournikova "in painstaking detail" and interviewed the photographer "at great length".

"The fact is that we were totally convinced that the video and his story were genuine. We were wrong!"