TrimSpa Sued

Anna Nicole Smith and TrimSpa Inc. have been sued in a class-action lawsuit alleging their marketing of a weight-loss pill is false or misleading.

Janet Luna and three people identified as her guardians were named in a lawsuit filed Thursday in Los Angeles Superior Court. The lawsuit alleges deceptive business practices and a violation of California's unfair competition law.

They are asking for unspecified damages, restitution and an injunction preventing Smith and New Jersey-based TrimSpa, maker of TrimSpa X32, from making claims that users of the pills can lose substantial amounts of weight.

Smith, 39, has endorsed TrimSpa and is a spokeswoman.

Messages left with Joseph Farzam, an attorney for the plaintiff, and Ron Rale, Smith's lawyer, weren't immediately returned early Tuesday.

Last month, the Federal Trade Commission announced TrimSpa would pay $1.5 million to settle allegations that the diet-products company's weight-loss claims were unsubstantiated.

TrimSpa released a statement following the announcement saying it supported actions to clean up the weight-loss industry, but disputed the federal agency's allegation that a handful of TrimSpa advertisements that ran in 2003 and 2004 had insufficient substantiation.

TrimSpa also disagreed with any inference that its X32 product has no scientific support.