Tara Costa, ‘Biggest Loser’ Star, Sued For Alleged Weight Gain

by uInterviewJuly 10, 2013, 12:00 amNews >

Tara Costa, the runner-up in The Biggest Loser's seventh season, is being sued by fitness firm FC Online Marketing for allegedly gaining weight.

"We hired Tara Costa in 2011 to be a spokesperson," FC Online Marketing’s CEO Michael Parrella explained to Newsday. "She came on at a certain weight. We had a fitness clause. She was in material breach after she gained, in my opinion, about 45 pounds. She was supposed to visit 15 of our franchise locations, but we weren't able to send her anywhere because she gained a lot of weight."

The lawsuit, which accuses Costa of both breach of contract and copyright infringement, was filed on July 2 in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida in Tampa. FC, who apparently paid $45,000 to Costa’s foundation for her image and likeness on advertisements, claims they are owed losses caused by her failure to meet her contractual obligations.

"This case has absolutely nothing to do with Ms. Costa’s weight and everything to do with FC Online’s breach of an appearance contract, along with their exploitation of Ms. Costa’s name and image without compensation on a website that promoted their commercial services," Costa’s lawyer Darren Heitner told Today.com. "It is notable that despite FC Online’s supposed efforts to distance itself from an overweight individual, it continued to display her name and likeness in association with the services it was offering.”

Heitner went on to state that his client plans to file a countersuit against FC Online, seeking royalty and exemplary damages for their continued and unauthorized use of her image and likeness. He suggested they wound also seek damages for FC Online’s refusal to pay for the appearances outlined in the contract – that FC Online contends Costa was too overweight to attend.

Since the lawsuit became public knowledge, Costa has taken to both Twitter and Facebook to post pictures of herself running and biking, clearly still in physically fit shape. Responding to a follower, she revealed that during the time she was scheduled to make appearances for FC Online she was in the best shape of her life, as she’d been training for theIronman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii.

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