Erin Andrews forced to admit her career took off after peephole video

NASHVILLE — Pressed by lawyers for the hotel she accuses of letting a stalker shoot a peephole video that exposed her naked to the world, sportscaster and “Dancing with the Stars” host Erin Andrews admitted Tuesday that her career actually took off after the gross invasion of privacy.

Nashville Marriott lawyer Marc Dedman asked Andrews — on the stand for the second day in her $75 million suit against the hotel — if her career has “thrived” since the 2009 video, which garnered an estimated 16 million hits online.

“Yes,” she replied.

“When you found out about this in July 2009, you were working for ESPN, right?” Dedman asked.

“Yes,” she calmly replied, following tearful direct testimony earlier in the day.

“You got a second contract with ESPN, right? And it was a better contract than you had the first time, right?” Dedman asked.

“Yes,” Andrews said.

“After that you got a contract with Fox Sports, right? And that was a better contract than you had with your second contract with ESPN, right?”

Again, Andrews answered, “Yes.”

Dedman also recited a list of endorsement deals Andrews has gotten since 2009, including Reebok, Degree deodorant, Diet Mountain Dew, Florida Orange Juice and Victoria’s Secret.

Andrews is suing the owner and manager of the Nashville Marriott, along with the man who shot the video, Michael David Barrett.

Her lawyers say the hotel was negligent when it allowed Barrett to find out what room she was in and then book a room next to hers without informing her.

But attorneys for the hotel’s owner and management company have insisted the incident was entirely Barrett’s fault — and that hotel workers never divulged where Andrews was staying.

To that end, Dedman got Andrews to agree that she was the “victim of a crime” before walking her through the testimony of several hotel employees, including one who insisted the local Marriott never received her stalker’s request to be placed in a room next to her.

Asked if anyone thinks less of her since the incident, she responded, “Yes. Names I don’t know, but I read about it everyday.”

The defense also played two video depositions given by ESPN talent coach Patrick Donaher and Lewis Kay, her publicist and manager.

Donaher said he didn’t see any significant changes in her job performance after the video was released.

Kay said her stalker was taken into account in almost every public situation, “especially if it involved travel.”