JUDGE DOUBLES DAMAGES FROM HOFFMAN SUIT; MAGAZINE TOLD TO PAY $3 MILLION TOTAL.

Byline: Peter Hartlaub Daily News Staff Writer

Dustin Hoffman's lawsuit payoff rose to $3 million Thursday when a judge added $1.5 million in punitive damages against Los Angeles Magazine for using the actor's photo without permission for a fashion layout.

Hoffman said outside Los Angeles Superior Court he is ``pleased and surprised'' with the award. A spokesman for the magazine's parent company, ABC, said the decision would be appealed.

First Amendment legal experts said Hoffman's cumulative damages award is the largest of its kind in California.

However, they said it won't have a far-reaching ``chilling effect'' on the media's ability to parody celebrities because the judge ruled that the layout was essentially an advertisement used to sell clothing - not a humorous article like the magazine claimed.

The ruling marks the end of the trial over the lawsuit, which was filed in April 1997, just a few weeks after a fashion layout appeared in the magazine, using a digitally altered photo of Hoffman from the movie ``Tootsie.''

Attorney Alan Isaacman, who successfully defended Hustler magazine publisher Larry Flynt in a landmark lawsuit filed by Rev. Jerry Falwell over a fake advertisement, said there is nothing trailblazing about the Hoffman case.

``The article with Falwell was just a parody, obviously. We didn't use his name to sell anything,'' Isaacman said. ``I think people in the field know you ought not to use someone's likeness to endorse their product.''

Southwestern University law professor Robert Pugsley said the magazine clearly should have contacted Hoffman before using a computer to clothe him in a Richard Tyler gown and Ralph Lauren heels.

``I don't think this is going to be a disturbing infringement on anyone's First Amendment rights and I don't think this should be a surprise to the magazine,'' Pugsley said.

Media attorney Kelli Sager added: ``It's hard for me to imagine the verdict being the same if a photograph of a celebrity was being used strictly in a news story.''

However, attorney Douglas Mirell said he believes Hoffman's award could be trimmed significantly on appeal if history is any measure. He said he believes there are First Amendment considerations.

``The history of multimillion-dollar verdicts in cases of this nature is they tend to get reduced, either by court ruling or by settlement,'' Mirell said.

On the witness stand last week, Hoffman said the magazine trivialized his ``Tootsie'' character and harmed his career when it published the fake photo shoot, which included several other living and dead celebrities.

U.S. District Judge Dickran Tevrizian awarded Hoffman $1.5 million in compensatory damages Friday, explaining in a written ruling that the actor was ``violated by technology.''

He added $1.5 million in punitive damages Thursday, without offering an immediate explanation.

Hoffman's attorney, Charles Shepard, had suggested that a punitive damages award of $3 million to $4.5 million would be appropriate.

Hoffman, 61, was nominated for an Academy Award for ``Tootsie,'' where he played a man who dressed as a woman to get a job on a soap opera. The magazine's ``Grand Illusions'' pictorial used a Hoffman's face for the layout, with the body of a younger model.

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