Judge likely to allow Blake Shelton to sue tabloid In Touch
A judge said Monday she is inclined to allow Blake Shelton’s defamation lawsuit against the publisher of In Touch Weekly to proceed based on a headline that proclaimed the country star was headed to rehab.
U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder delivered her tentative ruling Monday in Los Angeles, saying it appeared In Touch “cherry-picked” facts to support its “Rehab for Blake” headline that appeared on a September 2015 magazine cover.
Shelton sued Bauer Publishing Co. in October over the headline and an accompanying story that included several anecdotes of the country music star’s supposed drunken antics. Shelton, who is a judge on NBC’s “The Voice,” denies several key events in the story occurred and states he does not have a drinking problem.
Bauer’s attorney Elizabeth McNamara said if Snyder’s ruling becomes official, it will be appealed. She urged the judge to reconsider basing her ruling on In Touch’s headline and instead said the judge should focus on the allegations of Shelton’s excessive drinking, which she said there was enough evidence to support.
McNamara said the Grammy-nominated singer had created his “entire reputation around excessive drinking.”
Snyder, however, said a jury should decide whether the implication that Shelton needed rehab was defamatory. She said she intended to issue a ruling in a few days.
King no fan of Fenway netting
One of the most famous season-ticket holders of the Boston Red Sox is grumbling about new safety netting at Fenway Park meant to protect fans from foul balls and flying bats.
Horror novelist Stephen King says in an opinion piece published Monday in the Boston Globe that the netting is “one more step toward taking the taste and texture out of the game I care for above all others.”
He wrote there’s “something almost ludicrous about wrapping America’s baseball stadiums in protective gauze when any idiot with a grudge can buy a gun and shoot a bunch of people.”
MLB began requiring last season that fans in all ballparks go through metal detectors at all entrance gates.
The Red Sox, at the recommendation of league officials, installed the nets for this season after fans were seriously injured last season by bats and balls flying into the stands.
The birthday bunch
Actress Jane Withers is 90. Jazz musician Herbie Hancock is 76. Rock singer John Kay (Steppenwolf) is 72. Actor Ed O’Neill is 70. Former talk show host David Letterman is 69. Singer David Cassidy is 66. Actor Andy Garcia is 60. Country singer Vince Gill is 59. Rock singer Art Alexakis (Everclear) is 54. Folk-pop singer Amy Ray (Indigo Girls) is 52. Actress Shannen Doherty is 45. Actress Claire Danes is 37. Rock singer-musician Brendon Urie (Panic! at the Disco) is 29. Actress Saoirse Ronan is 22.