NEW YORK — Adult model “Melisssa Midwest” Harrington has been yanked as the face of a multi-million dollar lawsuit against dating site Match.com.
The New York Post reported today that in court papers filed on March 27, Harringon “demanded that she be withdrawn as a plaintiff” denying that she ever agreed to take on the Internet dating giant.
Lawyer Evan Spencer, who filed the suit last January blamed the turnaround on miscommunication.
“Melissa hasn’t been in the [porn] business for five years and decided she just didn’t want the attention,” Spencer said.
Harrington is the second model to be bounced as the face of the trademark infringement lawsuit. She joined the $4.5 billion action along with part-time Florida mainstream model Yuliana Avalos. But Spencer said he booted Avalos after receiving complaints that she willing sold her sexy shots to the very same Nigeria-based Internet scammers whom she blamed for exploiting her.
In Harrington's suit, MelTech Inc., the owner of the copyrighted photographs claimed it received thousands of complaints from American romance scam victims over the past six-plus years, alleging that hundreds of victims were scammed out of millions.
The original suit filed last November by Avalos, accuses Match.com of posting tens of thousands of fake dating profiles of attractive people on their sites in an effort to attract paying members.
Spencer told the Post that he plans to move forward without Harrington and with a watered-down version of the suit with fewer allegations against Match.com. He will be seeking unspecified money damages only on behalf of Harrington’s ex-husband, Shane Harrington, who owned the rights to her sexy photos.
A Match spokesman declined to comment but told the Post that the suit is “filled with outlandish conspiracy theories and clumsy fabrications in lieu of factual or legal basis.”
