Jackass Victim Sues

Insurance companies may be our salvation from reality shows, especially massively retarded dangerous shows:

A woman has sued cable TV network MTV, its parent company Viacom Inc., and a cast member of its daredevil show “Jackass,” claiming she suffered injuries in a stunt performed while taping a program.

In the suit filed on Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court, Wendy Linden of Riverside, California alleges she suffered spine and knee injuries after cast member David England ran across a stage and “using his body as a missile” crashed into a lectern near Linden.

The lectern hit Linden and knocked her to the concrete floor causing the injuries, according to the suit.

Linden’s attorney, Los Angeles-based Eric Yuhl, said Linden has had surgery for a herniated disc and her knee injuries could be symptomatic of nerve damage. He said she also suffers post traumatic stress syndrome.

An MTV spokeswoman declined to comment. England could not be immediately reached for comment.

“Jackass” aired on MTV in 2000 and 2001 and has since been canceled. The show in which Linden claims she was injured was for a special based on “Jackass” that was taped April 21 but never aired.

The lawsuit comes only one week before MTV and Viacom’s movie studio Paramount Pictures release “Jackass: The Movie” in U.S. theaters.

Yuhl said he has been negotiating with MTV and Viacom for the past several months to gain access to the tape of the show, but had been unable to do so, leading to the lawsuit’s filing this week.

In her suit, Linden claims she was recruited to be part of the show and was told by the producers that she would not be touched by the cast or exposed to any hazardous activities.

The suit also alleges cast members, including star Johnny Knoxville, were given alcohol by the producers, which led to a “hostile, volatile and out-of-control” environment.

No! don’t tell me they were drinking when they did things like bathing in excrement. I think it also likely that the programmers have been drinking heavily on the job, leading to such wretched offal as Jackass and Music By Rapists.