Word: burnetts
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...Burnett's $1.6 million punch
Enquirer Attorney William Masterson contends that Burnett suffered no damages from the story, "even if it was defamatory." Burnett's lawyers maintain that she was so upset she was forced to delay rehearsals of a television special that she was working on with Opera Star Beverly Sills. The story, which implied she had been drinking, was particularly painful to Burnett because her parents both died of alcoholism. The Enquirer's attorneys are expected to include in their defense the issue of freedom of the press. But Burnett, among others, argues that the First Amendment also requires a responsibility...
...bottom line on a production contract. Waiting in the wings with their own seven-or eight-figure libel suits against the Enquirer are Rory Calhoun, Phil Silvers, Paul Lynde, Agent Marty Ingels and Wife Shirley Jones, Ed McMahon and Rudy Vallee, all of whom evidently agree with Burnett that "it's time to stand up and be counted and not let people like this get away with...
...reminiscent of the mid-1950s, when lawsuits, particularly those by Robert Mitchum and Heiress Doris Duke, severely dampened Confidential magazine's penchant for unfounded gossip. Confidential's circulation plummeted from 4.1 million to about 300,000, and the magazine folded in 1969. The Enquirer boasts that the Burnett case is the first libel trial since Generoso Pope Jr. bought the tabloid in 1952. But that is because it occasionally settles out of court...
...gossip items had to be backed up by two independent sources-who were often paid by the Enquirer. But faced with flagging sales and increased competition from Rupert Murdoch's racy rising Star (circ. 3.5 million), Pope soon ordered up more pizazz. The outcome of the Burnett case and other suits may well determine whether he ordered up too much...