There is a fine line between extortion and the right of first refusal! 
Story here
If that were true, it would imply that every eBay auction is an act of extortion. Selling a product to the person who is willing to offer the most money is good business not a crime.
Here’s an analogy. Let’s say you bought a small house for $20,000. A few years later you thinking about selling it. Checking local house sales you figure it’s worth about $25,000. But you also discover that several years ago, when he was a young single man, Bill Gates had owned your house.
You decide to try a long shot. You write to Bill Gates and tell him you’re putting his old bachelor pad on the amrket and offer him the chance to buy it. He responds back that he’s glad you wrote because he has many fond memories of that house and has always regretted selling it. You tell him you’ll sell it to him for $100,000.
Now are you extorting Bill Gates? Obviously you’re asking him for more money than anyone else if likely to pay. But he willingly sold the house and you later legally bought it. If he decides he doesn’t want to pay the premium price, he’s free to refuse the sale.
What if, in going through the house, you discover a long-forgotten door hidden behind drywall, leading to a staircase and a secret basement, with large eyehooks in the reinforced beams and a big sign reading “Bill’s House of Torture and Wild Animal Butt Sex” above a photograph of a much-younger Bill tonguing a collie?
Well, I also had a hard time figuring where were the threats of force or fear… except for, in this case, perhaps the fear that this could adversely affect the value of the property known as “Image of Media Star Known as Cameron Diaz”.
Consider that for Ms. Diaz, the bulk of her earnings potential is derived from IMSKCD. Thus she will argue that an (in her opinion) inflated price where the effect of free market sale is a potential devaluation of the officially-sanctioned IMSKCD, is use of a “wrongful” negotiating tactic. Not as extreme as Cervaise’s case, but conceivable. Yet, like I wrote earlier, it’s not as if a couple of boob shots are going to disgrace her, or really put that much of a dent in her career right now.
And, of course, I do not know if the price asked of her may be proportional to true market value and she’s just cheap. Offering a right-of-first-refusal for an exhorbitant amount would be an “unfair business practice”, and thus “wrongful”. Else, looking at it more machiavelically, the complaint could be a quick, relatively inexpensive way to “poison the well” and make these pictures – and the photographer – tainted goods right off the bat, so noone will be willing to buy them from him. (And let’s not even go into a person’s “rights” over their own likeness.)
We would need more detailed specifics of what exactly were the quid-pro-quos of the deal.
According to one report I read, the negotiations broke down when Rutter refused Diaz’ offer of $3,200,000.
I don’t know what the market value is. I’ve heard other celebrities have received payments of over a million dollars for posing for nude pictures.
I don’t really get it. How long can this sort of thing last? We live in an age in which even amatuers can create realistic photos of Cameron Diaz naked using Photoshop in hours. There are millions of women who have been photographed naked with bodies as good or better than Diaz’s and they can just have their bodies placed on her head, or she can have a naked body modeled after her actual profile.
And even so, it’s not like human beings are some freakin mystery. We all look pretty much the same generally. What’s with all the excitement on seeing her naked when you can imagine or photoshop her naked to degrees even better than the reality?
I can’t imagine she would be willing to take this to court. She would have to tesify and no lawyer could permit her to perjur herself about signing those release forms. I think she’s just trying to intimidate the guy but all she’s probably doing is upping his eventual payday.
I disagree Apos, I’d rather look at the real Cameron Diaz naked than a photoshopped image.