American Media Inc. paid McDougal $150,000 for the rights to her story (her lawyer took nearly half) and assured her she would be able to write fitness columns for two years. AMI also said she would land on the cover of several of the company’s publications, including Star magazine, Radar Online and Men’s Fitness, where she had appeared in 1998. In pushing her to sign the deal, the men at AMI emphasized McDougal’s age, telling her that since she was an “older model,” the deal would be very important, according to the suit.