Friday, December 12, 2008

Libel is also "Too Thin".

http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qn4158/is_20060721/ai_n16673403

I'm amazed that The Inquirer is still in business at all, but here goes a story on another Libel Lawsuit lost by them. This one was brought up by Kate Hudson. The artcle's headline on said issue of the magazine read "Goldie tells Kate: Eat something! And she listens!"...wow is that not an eye grabber at the checkout of your local Target store! Actually, after being adviced by her lawers Hudson filed the suit in the UK, the magazine has a UK edition there and local laws made it more probable for her to win. First the plaintiff argumented the element that she had always showed that type of figure and it had been previously admired by the magazine. Her lawer said of her having unhealthy habits:
"...allegations were completely untrue and embarrassing and offensive to the actress, who was concerned about the impact on her career."
As we have studied, the law has special differentiated regulations for public figures such as celebrities. In some cases the most extreme things can be said and celebs wont do anything because it favors them as free publicity. But others they have no doubt in sueing.
"To be called unbelievably skinny is everybody's flashpoint. Magazines cross that line and they're going to get sued. It's a judgement call you're not allowed to make."
This case resembles the one seen on our final exam, but in this case the physycal feature which seems to be put under scrutiny is "thinness" rather than "busty young women".
But from the description of the case it seemed like a pretty straght forward case, the fact that it was her physycal aspect wqhich was easily proved to be healthy made them be false accusations, setting grounds for Libel. I guess at least there is one positive in this: most of the times celeb mags acuse women of being "too fat" or "overweight" rather than too skinny, and that sends a bad message to the young who consume the media. In this case it is shown that neither extreme is good and even the coolest Hollywood stars dont want to be seen as unhealthy due to weight issues.

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