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Friday, March 18, 2011

Beth Holloway dragged into Dr. Phil lawsuit

Birmingham, Al  (CBS42)  Beth Holloway will have to do a deposition in a lawsuit against talk show host Dr. Phil according to documents cited by the website TMZ.

It's all part of a suit filed by Deepak and Satish Kalpoe against Dr. Phil and his syndicator, CBS. The defamation suit claims the show "was deceptively clothed as an investigative piece looking into the disappearance of [Natalee]" but was "in reality an abhorrent example of manufactured media sensationalism at its worst."

The Kalpoe brothers were friends of Joran van der Sloot and were seen with van der Sloot and Natalee Holloway the night the Mountain Brook teen vanished five years ago on a high school trip to Aruba.  The two were questioned but never charged.  Van der Sloot is still considered the prime suspect in the disappearance.

The lawsuit claims Beth Holloway was privy to information "surrounding the motives and production of the show."

Lawyers for Dr. Phil and CBS say they only fought the deposition because it would slow down action on their motion to dismiss the lawsuit.  According to TMZ, the judge in the case is proceeding with both the deposition and consideration of the motion to dismiss.

The show in question aired in September 2005 just months after Natalee's disappearance.  The Kalpoe brothers filed their lawsuit in December in Los Angeles Superior Court accusing Phil McGraw, along with private investigator Jamie Skeeters and the CBS Television Group, of committing libel and slander, invasion of privacy, emotional distress, fraud, deceit and civil conspiracy by editing and airing an interview between Skeeters and Deepak Kalpoe to suggest the brothers somehow committed a crime.

At the time the lawsuit was filed, the show's producer, Paramount Studios said "We stand by the integrity of the Dr. Phil show, our editing process and the accuracy of the program that we aired. We will vigorously defend against these baseless claims."

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