When is a fabrication a private detail?

You've doubtless seen the Telegraph article about a man who sued his (ex)-friend for creating a fake Facebook profile in his name "including false information about his sexual orientation and political views" (gotta love that choice of words). What interests me is this bit: apparently his lawyer claims that:

"Mr Firsht values his privacy highly and it was the gross invasion of his privacy, namely having his personal details, including false details concerning his sexuality, laid bare for all to see on Facebook that caused him the most distress."

First: how is it invasion of privacy to make something up? It's not a "personal detail" that Neville Chamberlain used to molest budgerigars, it's a lie I just invented. So perhaps Mr Firsht's alleged homosexuality. Second: trying to safeguard your privacy by kicking off a court case about the cause celebre of the tech-blogging world is a move right out of the Alisher Usmanov school of keeping things quiet. Yesterday I didn't know or care who Mathew Firsht was, or that anyone was spreading lies about his sexuality. Today I'm writing about it. Perhaps later we'll see it up on Techmeme.

(HT Oliver Luft's news aggregator at Journalism.co.uk