Playboy Playmate pleads not guilty in locker room body-shaming case

ALLEGED LOCKER-ROOM body-shamer

Dani Mathers

, whose own body made her the 2015 Playboy Playmate of the Year, pleaded not guilty to invasion-of-privacy charges on Monday, according to Us magazine and her attorney

Thomas Mesereau

.

The Los Angeles Times says Mathers, 29, faces a misdemeanor count of invasion of privacy for secretly snapping and Snapchatting a photo of a woman changing at an LA Fitness club in July.

Her snarky comment: "If I can't unsee this then you can't either."

The woman pictured was 70 years old.

Instead of shaming her, people should have lauded her for dragging her 70-year-old behind to the gym.

Mathers later issued an apology, insisting that she only meant to send the photo to a friend-which makes her less of a public jerk and more of a private one.

"I know that body-shaming is wrong," her statement read. "That is not the type of person I am."

Mesereau said outside court that although Mathers regrets her actions, she didn't do anything illegal.

"She never tried to invade anyone's privacy and never tried to violate any laws," Mesereau said, per the Los Angeles Times.

Tattle, who is not a lawyer, believes that in a woman's locker room, a naked woman might have some expectation of privacy, perhaps not from other naked women in the same room, but of other, non-naked people elsewhere.

If the dorky guy who works the gym's towel counter had taken the photo with a hidden camera and Snapchatted it, he'd be going to jail.

The Los Angeles City Attorney's office thought Mathers committed a crime and charged her with a misdemeanor on Nov. 4. It's an unusual charge, as neither Mathers nor her camera were hiding, and the photo and accompanying commentary were more for the purpose of ridicule than sexual gratification.

Should that matter? The woman in question didn't agree to have her picture taken and didn't know her picture had been taken. Had she known, we think it's safe to say she probably wouldn't have wanted the photo to end up on the Internet.

Now, if Mathers' caption for it had read, "Look at this 70-year-old badass kicking my butt at the gym," this story would not be leading the column, nor would Mathers have ended up in court. But secretly snapping a nudie, sending it out and then mocking it is a problem. Maybe it shouldn't land you in jail, but it should land you somewhere others can revel in your public humiliation.

The Hollywood Reporter reports that MGM is suing screenwriter

Earl Mac Rauch

and director

Walter Richter

to clear up who owns the rights to the 1984 cult classic,

The Adventures of Buckaroo Banzai Across the 8th Dimension

.

MGM, it seems, wants to produce a TV series with Amazon based on the characters, to be directed by Kevin Smith.

But why?

* The Guardian reports that Emily Blunt's character is going to be written out of Soldado, the sequel to Sicario.

A sequel to Sicario?

But why?

* Houghton Mifflin Harcourt told the Associated Press on Monday that it was publishing

Imagine

, inspired by the

John Lennon

classic and authorized by his widow,

Yoko Ono

. With illustrations by

Jean Jullien

, the book will feature Lennon's lyrics as it tells of a young pigeon's mission to advocate for peace.

Imagine comes out Sept. 21, the United Nations' International Day of Peace. It will be released in partnership with Amnesty International, which will receive some of the proceeds.

* In other book news, Caitlyn Jenner has picked a name for her upcoming memoir: The Secrets of My Life.

Seriously? Could Caitlyn possibly have any secrets left?

The book is scheduled for April 17. It will trace Jenner's life from her childhood and years as Olympic superstar Bruce Jenner through her multiple marriages and children and transition to Caitlyn in 2015.

* As Quantico moves to Mondays to take the place of the underperforming Conviction, might this free Hayley Atwell to bring back Agent Carter?

- Daily News wire services

contributed to this report.

gensleh@phillynews.com

215-854-5678 @DNTattle