Life is far stranger than fiction... and sometimes far more amusing. Out-spoken purveyor of American sensibilities, Barbara Streisand, who sued a California Conservationist last year over pictures of most of the California coastline that happened to include her home is digging her heels in over the legal fees she was ordered to pay after she LOST the suit.

Streisand sued Adelman for $50 million May 20th, after his website, which photographically traces the California coast, published an aerial photograph of her estate, among many thousands of others. The photographs were among about 12,700, many of which highlight overdevelopment along the water's edge.

Adelman, a 39-year old Silicon Valley millionaire, took the pictures while his wife, Gabrielle, flew the R-44. The helicopter was flown southeast-bound along the coast at altitudes ranging from 150 to 2000ft, but typically 500-700ft, depending on the terrain, detail, and air traffic control constraints. The port-side rear door was removed, giving the photographer an unobstructed view of the coast -- including the Streisand estate -- causing her suit over an alleged violation of privacy.

The lawsuit "sought to reaffirm that everyone should have the right to retain their privacy, in their home, even in this technologically invasive age," according to Streisand lawyer John Gatti.

After the ruling, Adelman attorney Richard Kendall said Superior Court Judge Allan Goodman sent a message: Environmental activists have a right to fly where they want in public airspace and take pictures of whatever they want. To have ruled any other way, said Kendall, would have given the likes of Streisand "ownership" of vistas and making them off-limits to photographers -- even from several hundred feet above.

"That seemed absurd," Kendall said. "Many people familiar with privacy law agreed with us that the case was not well-founded." After finding against Streisand, Los Angeles Superior Court Judge Allan J. Goodman awarded legal fees to the California Coastal Records Project and its founder Kenneth Adelman.

Adelman's camp thought that their victory, "...reaffirms the public’s First Amendment right to participate in matters of public significance, a Los Angeles Superior Court issued a 46 page opinion today holding that Barbara Streisand, the well-known entertainer and Hollywood celebrity, abused the judicial process by filing a lawsuit against aerial archivist Ken Adelman, his Internet Service Provider Layer42.NET, and Pictopia.COM. The court also firmly rejected Streisand’s request for an injunction to force the removal of a panoramic photographic frame that happens to include her sprawling blufftop estate from Adelman’s website, www.Californiacoastline.org.

A jubilant Adelman expressed gratification at the court’s ruling. “My goal in bringing the Anti-SLAPP motion was to protect the integrity of this historic photographic database of the California coast and to ensure that the public continues to have unfettered access to the photographs and the other data it provides,” Adelman said. Lawsuits that seek to suppress public participation and free speech are referred to as SLAPP suits - Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation. The California Legislature enacted the Anti-SLAPP Statute to stop the increasing use by large corporate polluters of these meritless lawsuits that sought to silence the “valid exercise” of the constitutional right of freedom of speech of grassroots activists.

However; now that it's time for Streisand to pay for her legal assault against Adelman and associates, she's trying a number of excuses to avoid paying the $220,000 legal bills (an amount that is reportedly NOT out of line for a suit of this magnitude) presented by his legal team. Under California law, a "prevailing defendant on a special motion shall be entitled to recover his or her attorney's fees and costs." Instead of writing a check, though, Streisand is allegedly using a number of excuses and questions to try and undermine the bills presented to her in favor of a lesser amount. Tired of the delays, Adelman's legal team has filed a motion seeking a court order to compel Streisand to pay up and quit making excuses.

ANN is keeping an eye on this story and will let you know if Babs pays up...

FMI: www.californiacoastline.org