Oddly striking a blow against drivel and Reality TV, but I repeat myself.

I am totally with the plaintiff in the lawsuit against Peter Funt and Candid Camera, which is based on the following facts:

"Okay, where's the candid camera?" Philip Zelnick demanded on June 15, 2001, when an airport security official in Bullhead City, Ariz., instructed him to climb atop an authentic-looking, but phony, X-ray scanner machine (though identical in appearance to scanners reserved for carry-on luggage, the fake did not emit real rays).

It seemed fishy, but Zelnick complied. By the time the security guard (actually "Candid Camera" host Peter Funt) barked his trademark "Smile! You're on 'Candid Camera!'" the last thing Zelnick wanted to do was smile — instead, he wanted to sue.

In a suit filed against Funt, "Candid Camera," the Pax television network, the airport and the Mojave Country Airport Authority, Zelnick, 35, claims he incurred bruises and bleeding after becoming stuck in the faux scanner. According to his lawyer, Andrew Jones, Zelnick's thigh was pinched in the machine, forming a red, fist-sized "raspberry." His leg was also punctured by a pen inside his pocket.

"It wasn't a deep wound," Jones told Courttv.com. But "anxiety, distress, and humiliation" were after-effects of Zelnick's experience.

Which I'm sure they were, that being the purpose of the whole exercise. Apparently, Funt was wearing a security uniform and leaned on unwilling participants in his little theatre de exploitation by telling them that it was a serious security matter if they demurred.

"Jones," incidentally, is Andy Jones who is a fellow North Fresno Rotarian. The "Candid Camera" lawsuit was tried last week and was recorded by Court TV. Andy told me yesterday that the jury came back with $2,000 compensatory and $300,000 in punitives.

One legal issue arising from the result is that a recent SCOTUS decision provides a general guideline that punitives should be no more than a single digit multiple of compensatory damages. If this rule applies, then Candid Camera's exposure is somthing around $20,000, which hardly seems likely to deter future invasions of acts that amount to false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress and invasion of privacy.