Former Governor of Alaska Sarah Palin (2nd L) talks with her daughter Bristol Palin (2nd R) as she arrives at the embassy of Italy for an MSNBC after-party following the annual White House Correspondents' Association dinner in Washington May 1, 2011. 
 
 LOS ANGELES A man who heckled Bristol Palin in a Los Angeles bar and insulted her conservative politician mother, Sarah Palin, filed a lawsuit on Wednesday accusing the single mom of defamation. 
 
 Talent manager Stephen Hanks also sued cable channel Lifetime, which includes film of the 2011 incident in Bristol Palin's upcoming reality TV show, claiming he had not given the program's makers his permission to be filmed. 
 
 The lawsuit, filed in U.S. federal court in Los Angeles, stems from a widely publicized September 2011 incident at a bar and restaurant on the famous Sunset Strip. 
 
 The amount of damages is not specified but Hank's lawyer, Los Angeles-based Michael Gulden, told Reuters the suit had been filed in federal court because the plaintiff was seeking more than $75,000. 
 
 Representatives for Palin and Lifetime did not immediately respond to requests for comment. 
 
 Palin, who rose to fame because of a teen pregnancy when her mother was running for U.S. vice president in 2008 as a Republican, had just ridden a mechanical bull at the bar when Hanks, who was a customer there, shouted out that her mother was "a whore" and said she was "evil". 
 
 Video of the exchange that was widely posted on the Internet shows Palin, 21, confronting Hanks, asking him if he was gay, and getting into a heated exchange with the man who heckled her. 
 
 Palin later told celebrity magazine In Touch that the incident was one of the reasons she had decided to leave Los Angeles and return to her home in Wasilla, Alaska. 
 
 Hanks claims in his lawsuit, however, that Palin had bought a new house in Alaska in July 2011, and that she had defamed him by publicly blaming their encounter for her decision to leave Los Angeles. 
 
 Hanks also says he suffered emotional distress and invasion of privacy over Palin's questions about his sexuality, and the use of the incident in publicity for the TV reality show. 
 
 "Bristol Palin's conduct was outrageous", states the lawsuit, a copy of which was obtained by Reuters. 
 
 "Bristol Palin first accused Plaintiff off 'being a homosexual' in a degrading manner in front of others ... she then in a magazine article blamed Plaintiff for her decision to leave Los Angeles for Alaska even though she had purchased her home in Alaska ... more than two months before the encounter," the lawsuit adds. 
 
 Palin's reality show "Life's a Tripp", which chronicles her stay in Los Angeles with her now 3-year-old son Tripp and her return to Alaska, is scheduled to premiere on the Lifetime cable channel on June 19. 
 
 Gulden said Hanks had tried without success to solve the matter outside the courts with Lifetime and its parent company A&E; Television Networks, which is owned by NBCUniversal, Disney-ABC Television, and the Hearst Corporation. 
 
 "He has communicated with A&E; regarding use of the footage, and they were non-responsive. He felt (filing the lawsuit) was all he could do to protects his rights," Gulden told Reuters. 
 
 NBCUniversal is controlled by Comcast Corp. and Disney-ABC is owned by The Walt Disney Co.. 
 
 (Reporting By Jill Serjeant; Editing by Bob Tourtellotte and M.D. Golan) ||||| Bristol Palin Sued By Bar Heckler 
 
 Breaking News 
 
 He toldher mother was "evil" and a "whore" ... but now the man who verbally accosted's daughter in a Hollywood bar last year is suing Bristol for defamation.It's all over that infamous encounter at Saddle Ranch on the Sunset Strip back in September ... whenshouted at Bristol, " Your mother's a whore " (clip below -- skip to 1:40).Hanks is pissed because he claims the incident was captured by a reality TV crew that was with Bristol. Hanks says he never signed a waiver ... and was furious when his image started appearing in ads for Bristol's new Lifetime show, "Bristol Palin: Life's a Tripp."In his lawsuit, filed in L.A. County Superior Court, Hanks claims Bristol later gave an interview to a gossip mag and blamed him for causing her to leave Los Angeles and move back to Alaska.Hanks claims he can PROVE Bristol was lying ... because she had already purchased a new home in Alaska two months before their encounter.Hanks says Bristol's statements to the gossip mag hurt his reputation and damaged his career.In the suit, Hanks also gripes that Bristol accused him of being gay during their encounter -- saying she could "tell" by the way he looked.Hanks is suing Bristol and A&E -- the company behind Lifetime. He's asking for unspecified damages.Calls to Bristol have not been returned.
– Stephen Hanks, who famously heckled Bristol Palin in a Los Angeles bar while she was filming her reality show, may have apologized … but now he's suing over her "outrageous" conduct. Hanks, a talent manager, says he never gave permission to be filmed, and is suing Palin and Lifetime—which is including video of the incident in Life's a Tripp, premiering Tuesday—for defamation, claiming he suffered emotional distress and invasion of privacy when Palin asked him if he was gay. Palin said the incident was partly to blame for why she left LA and returned to Alaska, but Hanks claims she had already bought her new Alaska home at the time—and thus further defamed him by blaming their exchange for her departure. His lawyer tells Reuters that Hanks attempted to communicate with Lifetime's parent company A&E about using the footage, but got no response. Hanks wants unspecified damages; his lawyer says the amount is more than $75,000. Click to relive the bar encounter.