Perhaps nosey shutterbugs will start taking Meghan Markle seriously when she tells them to stay out of her business now that a protracted legal battle with the Hollywood princess has forced a massive paparazzi operation into bankruptcy.
Splash News & Picture Agency, one of the top shops in the commerce of gotcha celebrity photographs, has filed for Chapter 11 protection in a Nevada bankruptcy court due in part to a costly invasion of privacy lawsuit brought by Meghan Markle last September for snapping pictures of her son, Baby Archie, during a “private family outing” in a Canadian park, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Splash president Emma Curzon says the Markle lawsuit as well as a case brought against the agency by a former employee—plus a shortage of celebs available for public viewing during the pandemic—led the company to file for bankruptcy after it defaulted on a $972,000 loan from Deasil Limited, which holds a blanket lien on nearly all of Splash’s assets.
“Splash’s financial problems stem from three sources,” Curzon stated in a declaration submitted to the court. “As a consequence of the global pandemic the availability of celebrity images has declined and budgets within media companies have been cut to reflect wider macro-economic challenges. This situation has been exacerbated by two ongoing litigation cases and the costs of defending these cases.”
While Splash promised in December to refrain from snapping unauthorized pics of Meghan,…
