Alba: Livid

Los Angeles, March 3 (Reuters): Film star Jessica Alba demanded that Playboy magazine pull its March issue, saying yesterday that its editors made her an unwitting cover girl and misled readers into thinking they could see her nude inside.

Lawyers for Alba sent Playboy a letter threatening to sue if it did not remove the issue ? which features a publicity photo of the bikini-clad actress on the front ? from the stands and pay for damages to her reputation and career.

“Playboy has violated my personal rights and blatantly misled the public, who might think I had given them permission to put me on their cover when I didn’t,” Alba, 24, said in a statement.

Alba’s lawyers say that after the Fantastic Four film star refused to pose for Playboy, the magazine tricked Sony Pictures into giving it a publicity photo from her 2005 film Into the Blue for the cover.

Playboy added to the deception when it put its bunny logo on Alba’s bikini top in the photo, her lawyer said.

In the February 23 letter, which was made public on the Smoking Gun website, attorney Brian Wolf said Playboy sought to create the false impression that Alba would appear in revealing pictures inside the magazine.

A Playboy spokeswoman said Alba was placed on the cover after being chosen “sexiest star of the year” by its readers. She was included inside the magazine in an article on the top 25 sexiest celebrities as chosen in an online poll. The poll said: “Her performances in last year’s Sin City and Into The Blue made it all too clear: This little angel is all grown up!”

“Many celebrities have appeared on the cover of Playboy, but not nude, including Claudia Schiffer, Paris Hilton, Goldie Hawn, Raquel Welch, Barbra Streisand, Brooke Shields and Donald Trump,” Playboy spokeswoman Lauren Malone said.

Earlier this month, Jessica’s Into The Blue co-star Paul Walker confessed he was transfixed by her shapely body during filming. The star told Complex magazine: “Come on, dude, you know what I’m looking at.”