Could this drama finally be nearing an end?

Verne Troyer announced that his nemesis, former girlfriend, and sex-tape partner, Ranae Shrider — who leaked the footage of the two doing the nasty — has finally moved out of the house they shared.

“Yeah, she’s already moved out,” he confirmed to E! recently.

This makes me so sad, because what if I never have another excuse to run this photo? Maybe I’ll just run it on occasion anyway. On slow news days. To put a smile on everyone’s face. This photo should never be forgotten.

I mean, it kind of makes sense. What else is he going to do? Beat them up?

This time, Verne’s suing his ex-girlfriend and sex tape partner, Ranae Shrider, for “intentional infliction of emotional distress and battery.” Verne’s lawyer claims his former housemate “once picked the lock to his bedroom door, pushing away a 100 pound scooter that was used to block the door, and then throwing him to the floor.” His lawyer, in a statement to TMZ, adds that “when you pick up a 2′8″ human being and throw him to the floor, it hurts.”

And you know what he’s suing her for?

$20 million!!!

You know this chick doesn’t have that kind of money. He’s trying to bankrupt her.

And what is his lawyer doing giving exclusive statements and information to TMZ? They were one of the parties named in Troyer’s previous lawsuit (also for $20M). Wanna know what I think? I think the settlement for the previous lawsuit — which resulted in TMZ taking down the footage they had of the sex tape — involved an agreement that Troyer would give TMZ a first look at inside info on any further developments. I mean, they ran this story before the lawsuit was even filed in court. It’s a strange, strange world, kids.

Oh and wanna know what I loooooooooove?

This photo.

SAD FACE!

You know, most of the time, it’s just all light-hearted fun and gossip around these parts. We don’t take ourselves or any one story too seriously, and one day blends into the next.

But every once in awhile there’s a story that grabs you in the pit of your stomach, pulls at your heartstrings, and makes you almost nauseous with the genuine tragedy of it all. These days stay with us.

Today is one of those days.

The Verne Troyer sex tape will not be released. The parties have reached a settlement in the lawsuit Verne brought against potential distributors.

Records show that Blatt and SugarDVD have signed agreements requiring that they get Troyer’s approval before selling or distributing the tape or any images from it.

Edwin McPherson, one of Troyer’s attorneys, said the actor has no intention of granting approval.

Dude, I know this is a Hail Mary, but we can we just all pray that Verne gets so low on cash he has to agree to let this thing be distributed? Please? Please???

(And, no, I will never get tired of running this photo. In fact, even when this story is good and dead and no one remembers Ranae Shrider’s name, I will still, on occasion, run this photograph, because it is just that awesome.)

Verne Troyer is finally speaking out about The Sex Tape! And also about Heath Ledger.

And he says his ex-girlfriend, Ranae Shrider, leaked the tape!

No surprise there.

“I broke up with her in the middle of June; it was something probably to do with that. It was basically when she decided to give the tape away. I highly doubt that she thought that would get me back with her. Ransom or something … She’s still in the house,” Troyer says, noting that he’s taking legal action to force her out, but their situation “makes it even harder, to, you know, not strangle her … I saw her when I left today and she was calling me names and stuff. Uh, so I can’t get away from it.”

Troyer was reportedly choking back tears during the entire interview.

Adding to his sadness: he’d been working with Heath Ledger on his final film, The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.

“I don’t believe that he was troubled,” he says of Ledger’s final days working on the movie. “Everyone knew that he had a hard time sleeping and from working in the cold weather in London—we were out in the rain and things like that—so everybody got sick, to a certain extent … He couldn’t sleep because he was so wrapped up in the character of Joker in Batman. He was still going through not sleeping because he was so involved in that. Throughout our shoot it was the same way … He wasn’t, for me, depressed enough to even think about taking his own life. It was an accident, it happened and it’s very unfortunate.”

Verne tells a cute story about Heath:

Troyer insists that despite sleeplessness Ledger was still “upbeat” about his work on Parnassus. Playful even, as Troyer recalls the last time he and Ledger were together: On the cast’s final night of shooting before they departed London for hiatus, the pair shot a scene at a bar where paparazzi loomed out front. Ledger made his way into the crowd unseen to tease the shutterbugs.

“Heath snuck his way out into the crowd without anybody noticing and came right up next to one of the photographers and asked him, ‘Who are you trying to shoot? Who are you trying to get?’”

The photog said he wanted a snap of Ledger, to which Ledger responded, “’Oh, really? That’s cool,’” according to Troyer. By the time the pap could realize it was Heath himself, the actor had disappeared.

“I thought that was classic, just classic and hilarious,” Troyer said.

It’s so sad to me that Heath was so wrapped up in the darkness of The Joker. I guess that’s a risk you run in being a brilliant actor. I can tell you that I never lose sleep at night because I’m so wrapped up in the character of The Evil Beet. When I lose sleep at night, it’s more about things like, “Did I misspell Selena Gomez’s name? Oh, God, I hope not. She’s been on the scene for like five weeks. I should know this by now.” But I suppose to be truly great in a role like that, you have to access some really dark parts of yourself, and I can understand how it could be difficult to exorcise those demons once you’ve rolled out the red carpet for them.

Aw, Heath. You’re missed, sweetie.

On Friday, a federal judge granted the temporary restraining order requested by Mini-Me’s attorneys, forcing TMZ to pull down the clip they had of Verne Troyer’s sex tape, and temporarily prohibiting the tape from being sold or any further clips from being distributed.

Will the order hold?

That remains to be determined, but Lord I hope not.

Meanwhile, the kids at Defamer point out that Troyer currently owes $283,000 in taxes in the states of California and Michigan. Is it possible he “leaked” the tape himself and is now hoping to use some of the $20M he’s suing for to get himself out of debt?

Hmmm.

Well, at least we know that one thing is big about Verne Troyer: his lawsuits.

Mini-Me has filed a multi-million dollar lawsuit against TMZ for running a clip of his sex tape on their website. He says that TMZ disregarded cease-and-desist letters sent both before and after the video showed up on the site.

Troyer has also sued Kevin Blatt (the man who sold the One Night in Paris footage), claiming her purchased the stolen tape and was trying to sell it to SugarDVD for $100K.

I can’t quite figure out how much he’s asking for (you can take a stab at the legal papers yourself here), but it seems to be at least in excess of $20M.

Wonder if TMZ will be reporting on this turn of events …

Seriously. Explain this to me. Please.

Watch it. Watch it. Watch it.