Ex-porn star Melissa Midwest dropped from Match.com suit
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}A popular ex-porn star is being dropped as the face of a multibillion-dollar Manhattan lawsuit against Match.com, making her the second woman since January to be removed from top billing in the case, The Post reports.
“Melissa Midwest” Harrington — once among the top 10 most-searched names on the Internet — recently demanded that she be removed from the class-action, trademark-infringement suit.
Filed in November in Manhattan federal court, the suit accuses the Internet-dating giant and affiliated sites of posting tens of thousands of fake dating profiles featuring unsanctioned photos of pretty people to attract paying members.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Lawyer Evan Spencer had quietly amended the complaint in January to replace the original lead plaintiff — part-time Florida model Yuliana Avalos — with Harrington, a 31-year-old former porn princess from Omaha, Neb.
Spencer told the Post on Sunday he booted Avalos after receiving complaints that she and her boyfriend had previously sold sexy pictures of herself to the very same Nigeria-based Internet scammers whom she claimed in the suit exploited her.
Court papers filed Thursday say Harringon “demanded that she be withdrawn as a plaintiff” because she never agreed to be part of the suit.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Spencer said he plans to move forward without Harrington and with a watered-down version of the suit far different from the $4.5 billion class-action suit that made headlines worldwide.
A Match spokesman declined to comment.