Sweatin’ it out
Simmons’ lawsuit against Enquirer in trouble
FITNESS GURU Richard Simmons’ libel lawsuit against the National Enquirer is in serious jeopardy of being struck down.
A Los Angeles judge Wednesday issued a tentative ruling saying Simmons failed to identify any economic losses over the Enquirer’s 2016 cover story claiming he underwent “shocking sex surgery,” including breast implants, hormone treatments and consultations on medical castration.
Without any stated damages, “misidentification of a person as transgender is not actionable defamation,” the judge wrote in the tentative opinion, which the Daily News obtained.
“The court does not mean to imply in its holding that the difficulties and bigotry facing transgender people is minimal or nonexistent. To the contrary, the court has reviewed the evidence submitted by Simmons regarding the deplorable statistics relating to transgender people,” Judge Gregory Keosian wrote.
But “even if there is a sizeable portion of the population who would view being transgender as negative,” the court should not “directly or indirectly, give effect to these prejudices,” he wrote.
Keosian heard arguments Wednesday and promised to issue a final ruling soon.
If he adopts his preliminary ruling and tosses all five causes of action in the complaint, Simmons’ team would have an opportunity to appeal.
Simmons sued last May, saying The Enquirer’s cover story — with the blaring headline, “Richard Simmons: He’s Now A Woman” (below) — was “cruel” and “malicious.”
He called himself “an avid supporter of the LGBTQ community” but said he decided to sue because the story was false, it invaded his privacy and it “cheaply and crassly commercialized and sensationalized an issue that ought to be treated with respect and sensitivity.”
Simmons’ lawyer, Rodney Smolla, argued in court Wednesday that the judge was misguided in comparing Simmons’ libel case to others involving race.
“Obviously, it’s clear that the court itself doesn’t want to be in a position of endorsing prejudice against transgender people,” Smolla argued. “But it’s not an exercise in idealism, it’s an exercise in realism.”
He pointed to President Trump’s recent ban on transgender people serving in the U.S. military and high-profile battles in states such as North Carolina over transgender people’s bathroom rights.
“There are giant segments who endorse the kind of hatred and prejudice and shunning of transgender people that is dramatically different from the way we treat race in this country,” Smolla said.
“It would be unthinkable that the U.S. Army would say, ‘No blacks in the U.S. Army,’ ” he argued. Smolla said it would likewise be unthinkable for a school to have different bathrooms based on race.
The lawyer for the National Enquirer’s parent company, American Media, said she hoped the judge would adopt his tentative ruling.
“I think court got it right,” attorney Kelli Sager said. “As a matter of law ... we do not sanction bigotry and prejudice by calling it defamation.” Simmons did not attend the hearing. Smolla said he will appeal if the judge adopts his preliminary ruling.