COUNTRY STAR SHELTON TAKES TABLOID TO TASK.
Celebrities have different ways of dealing with rumours in the tabloid press. Most ignore the stories. Some tweet denials. Others laugh off the claims in interviews.
Only a select few actually spend the resources to file a lawsuit. And Blake Shelton is joining their ranks.
This week, the country star and judge on NBC’s The Voice sued Bauer Publishing, the parent company behind In Touch Weekly. Shelton is suing the magazine for defamation and false light invasion of privacy, seeking damages of at least $1 million US. The tabloid published a September cover story titled The Real Story: REHAB For Blake, trumpeting all kinds of facts: “Drinking vodka before noon & slurring his words”; “What he did while wasted that destroyed his marriage”; “How his friends begged him to stop joking about drinking and get help.”
Shelton often battles the tabloids, a fight that started long before he divorced fellow country star Miranda Lambert this summer — he’s never been afraid to fight back on social media. For years, magazines loved speculating about the couple, forecasting their impending split and other juicy details. It turned into a running joke between Shelton and Lambert on Twitter, as they tweeted the most absurdly false rumours. Shelton continued to do this after they broke up, in the wake of the In Touch story and rumours he was dating his Voice costar Gwen Stefani.
However, he’s clearly reached his breaking point where snarky tweets aren’t going to cut it.
“Blake Shelton has had enough,” the suit states up front. “For the second time in as many months, Bauer has maliciously plastered Mr. Shelton’s face on the cover of its tabloid In Touch Weekly and made false accusations all in an effort to drive magazine sales.” The word “malicious” is key here, as Shelton’s lawyers will have to prove Bauer had “actual malice” to win a defamation complaint.
Details in the lawsuit reveal Shelton’s attorneys had a previous run-in with In Touch. About a month after Shelton and Lambert split, the magazine published a story in August claiming Shelton had an affair with singer Cady Groves while he was still married to Lambert. In Touch quoted an anonymous source saying the two were sleeping together for a year, while Groves “doesn’t deny” the affair happened. (The lawsuit counters that Shelton helped out Groves when she was a “struggling” new artist by appearing in her music video at the request of his label, and the two were just friends.)
Anyway, that was old gossip — US Weekly reported on the rumours about Groves and Shelton back in 2013 — but Shelton was furious and demanded a retraction. In Touch refused. So Shelton decided to move on; the lawsuit says In Touch editors came to an agreement with Shelton’s lawyers that the magazine would be “laying off” Shelton in the future.
Yet a month later, the next cover story was published, implying Shelton was headed for rehab. It included lines like “Blake’s drinking and womanizing are what helped torpedo his four-year marriage to Miranda.”
According to the suit, the article included an anecdote about Shelton partying with strippers in Mexico and going to strip clubs; plus, a story about Lambert walking in on him and naked women in their home.
All of that, the suit says, is unequivocally false. Yes, the suit says, Shelton was in Mexico recently; but it was a vacation with friends, some of whom brought their wives. The suit also points out that in the print copy, the magazine “cherry-picked” excerpted tweets about Shelton’s drinking habit — a fairly easy task, considering Shelton constantly tweets about alcohol. Plus, the suit alleges the magazine didn’t let Shelton defend himself, as editors didn’t share any “specific allegations” with his representatives before it published.
Shelton is currently one of the biggest stars in country music, breaking into the mainstream over the past few years as a star on The Voice and landing highprofile endorsement deals. The lawsuit points out that’s what he stands to lose: “Mr. Shelton is portrayed as a man unhinged and, as stated on the cover, a man at ‘rock bottom.’ This is patently false and is damaging to Mr. Shelton ... In Touch’s publication exposed Mr. Shelton to contempt, ridicule and obloquy, and tarnished his personal and business reputation.”
So what does Shelton have to gain from this? (Besides, you know, money.) Defamation cases are famously challenging, a lawsuit only brings more attention to In Touch’s negative headlines. At this point, it appears as more of a warning that tabloids shouldn’t mess with him.