Ex-husband seeks deal on Heidi Montag sex tape

Reality TV stars Spencer Pratt and Heidi Montag are at war over that must-have accessory for any ambitious 'celebutante' – a sex tape. Pratt revealed on Friday he has opened negotiations to sell footage of his estranged wife for $5m to celebrity pornographer-in-chief Steve Hirsch.

Pratt and Montag (pictured above in February) rose to fame on MTV’s reality show The Hills which followed a group of ambitious young Hollywood-ites trying to make it as singers and actors. Girlfriend and boyfriend when the series began, the two later married but announced earlier this year that they had filed for divorce after 15 months as husband and wife.

According to the gossip site TMZ.com, the estranged couple were holed up in separate rooms of the same hotel in Costa Rica on Saturday negotiating over a series of tapes of Montag having sex not only with Pratt but also with women, including the Shannon twins – identical blonde Playboy playmates.

The rumour is that Pratt has told Montag he is willing to keep the tapes private if she agrees to star in another reality TV series with him.

Pratt revealed on Friday that he was attempting to sell the tapes to pornography producer Steve Hirsch. Hirsch's Vivid Entertainment has cornered the market in celebrity sex tapes – releasing them both with and without the blessing of the celebrity involved.

A home-made video of actor Rob Lowe having sex with two women derailed his career in 1986. But it was with the rise of the internet that the sex tape phenomenon really came into its own.

In 2003 a tape of Paris Hilton having sex was leaked onto the web – and later issued on DVD by a porn publisher under the title One Night in Paris. Some predicted the tape would end Hilton's career. In fact, it gave her profile a significant boost, proving the old maxim that there is no such thing as bad publicity.

A similar publicity surge followed Steve Hirsch's biggest triumph to
date: a tape featuring Kim Kardashian, star of the American reality TV show Keeping Up With the Kardashians. She initially sued Vivid for
ownership of a tape of her having sex with ex-boyfriend R&B singer Ray J in 2007, but settled out of court, and has since gone from strength to strength.

Kardashian's example was cited as a model by Montana Fishburne, daughter of A-list actor Laurence, this year when she
announced she was starring in a hardcore pornographic film released through Vivid.

Now Pratt, a self-described "fame whore", hopes Montag's tape will be the most popular yet – and generate the most publicity. He even described it as the Citizen Kane of sex tapes.

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