Lance Armstrong Sued Over Book, Ex Sheryl Crow Is All Smiles
The Lance Armstrong saga continues.
One week after the disgraced seven-time winner of the Tour de France confessed to using performance-enhancing drugs in an interview with Oprah Winfrey, two readers of his books have filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against Armstrong and his book publishers, claiming that they sold fiction as fact in his 2000 memoir It's Not About the Bike: My Journey Back to Life and its 2003 follow-up Every Second Counts.
The Sacramento, California, men are Rob Stutzman, a one-time deputy chief of staff for former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, and Jonathan Wheeler, a chef and cyclist. According to the lawsuit, both say they purchased the book "based upon the false belief that they were true and honest works of nonfiction when, in fact, Defendants knew or should have known that these books were works of fiction." They added that, "Throughout the book, Defendant Armstrong repeatedly denies that he ever used banned substances before or during his professional cycling career."
While the lawsuit doesn't specify how much money the readers are seeking, it demands "any statutorily permissible damages, attorneys' fees, expenses and costs."
Armstrong, 41, can expect a lot more action in the courts. Companies that used him as a spokesman, groups that paid for him to speak at functions (which once cost $200,000), and others also are expected to try to reclaim their money.
The Texas native could face charges of perjury as well, since he's testified under oath that he didn't use drugs to help his performance.
As Armstrong begins to struggle with the fallout from his revelation, his former fiancee Sheryl Crow was all smiles as she frolicked on the beach with her sons Wyatt, 5, and Levi, 2, in Venice, California, on Wednesday.
The singer, who, like Armstrong, once struggled with cancer, gave a very diplomatic when asked about the scandal on "Entertainment Tonight."
"I think that honesty is always the best bet and that the truth will set you free," she noted. "It must be really hard to walk around knowing you are not telling the truth about something. So I always contend that the truth is the best way to go."
Crow even admitted to watching part of Armstrong's big interview. "I know how hard he worked to win those titles, and you know, it was hard to watch," she said. "I felt bad. I felt bad for him, I felt bad for his family, and I kinda felt like the rest of America. He is a hero that we watched and looked up to and admire."
She's yet to address comments from Betsy Andreu, the wife of Armstrong's former teammate and friend Frankie Andreu, that Crow must have known that Armstrong was doping. The couple dated for about three years.
"Are you kidding me? She was his fiance," Andreu told the U.K. Daily Mail. "She surely knew what was going on. She could have helped other people."
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