In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, Lee Daniels compared Empire star Terrence Howard to Sean Penn, as they've both had a few domestic disputes. Sean Penn didn't care for the comparison and filed a lawsuit against Daniels for the princely sum of $10 million.
- Age: 64
- Birthplace: Santa Monica, California, USA
- Profession: Film Producer, Screenwriter, Actor, Film Director
- Photo:
- MC1 Chad J. McNeeley, U.S. Navy
- Wikimedia Commons
- Public Domain
In 2011, Katie Holmes settled a lawsuit against celebrity gossip publication The Star for $50 million. The suit was over an article that claimed that Holmes was addicted to drugs. The magazine issued an apology and even said that they would make a "substantial donation" to one of Holmes's favorite non-profits.
- Age: 45
- Birthplace: Toledo, Ohio, USA
- Profession: Model, Actor
- Photo:
In 2003, Tom Cruise won a defamation case against a gay adult film actor who claimed to a French magazine that he and Cruise had an affair that led to the dissolving of Cruise's marriage to Nicole Kidman.
The man was told to pay a sum of $10 million.
- Age: 62
- Birthplace: Syracuse, New York, USA
- Profession: Television director, Film Producer, Screenwriter, Actor
The next time you write a novel, make sure ScarJo isn't a character, because she'll probably sue. Case in point: In 2014 she sued French author Grégoire Delacourt for writing her into his book as a model who had multiple affairs.
She said the book defamed her name, but the court disagreed and awarded her just €2,500 of the the €50,000 she asked for.
- Age: 39
- Birthplace: New York City, USA, New York
- Profession: Model, Actor, Voice acting, Singer
After Univision cut ties with Donald Trump and the Miss Universe Organization over his offensive remarks about Mexican immigrants, he fired back at them with a breach of contract and defamation complaint believed to be worth over $500 million.
The sides settled in February 2016, but the details of the agreement weren't disclosed.
- Age: 78
- Birthplace: New York, New York, USA
- Profession: Businessperson, Television producer, Investor, Entrepreneur, Real estate entrepreneur
- Photo:
In 2005, Cameron Diaz sued News Group Newspapers after their paper The Sun ran a story claiming that she was seen out kissing some hunk while she was dating Justin Timberlake. Well, it turned out that the hunk was an MTV VJ buddy of hers.
News Group Newspapers agreed to pay undisclosed damages to the actress and reimburse her legal costs.
- Age: 52
- Birthplace: San Diego, California, USA
- Profession: Model, Actor, Voice acting
- A story alleging that Russell Brand had cheated on his girlfriend in November 2013 brought the comedian and English paper The Sun to court in early 2014. The paper's publisher (Newsgroup) apologized and agreed to pay Brand's legal fees and damages, believed to have been at least five figures.
- Age: 49
- Birthplace: Essex, England, UK
- Profession: Activist, Comedian, Television producer, Screenwriter, Author
When the British paper the Daily Mail posted a photo of Keira Knightley in an article about anorexia, the actress sued the paper for £3,000 and donated her winnings to eating disorder charity Beat.
- Age: 39
- Birthplace: Teddington, Middlesex, England, UK
- Profession: Model, Actor, Voice acting
Sharon Stone sued a Beverly Hills surgeon who she said claimed that he'd performed cosmetic surgery on her face. In her suit she said that his claims hurt her ability to find work. She dropped the case in 2005.
- Age: 66
- Birthplace: Meadville, Pennsylvania, USA
- Profession: Fashion Model, Film Producer, Actor, Voice acting
- Photo:
In what is surprisingly the first Twitter defamation lawsuit, James Woods took action to sue Twitter user @abelisted for calling Woods a "cocaine addict." The actor admitted that he didn't know who Abe List was, but he still filed a lawsuit against the anonymous Twitter user for 10 million big ones.
- Age: 77
- Birthplace: Vernal, Utah, USA
- Profession: Television producer, Film Producer, Actor, Voice acting
- Photo:
- Georges Biard
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY-SA 3.0
In 2010, Brangelina won an undisclosed sum after suing a British tabloid that reported the two were splitting up and planning to divide their assets.
- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Shawnee, Oklahoma, USA
- Profession: Television producer, Film Producer, Actor, Voice acting
- Photo:
- Photo:
- Georges Biard
- Wikimedia Commons
- CC BY-SA 3.0
In 2005, a British High Court ruled in favor of exiled director Roman Polanski after he sued Vanity Fair for an allegation he said made him seem "callously indifferent" to the memory of his murdered wife Sharon Tate. He was awarded £50,000 in damages.- Age: 91
- Birthplace: France, Paris
- Profession: Film Producer, Screenwriter, Actor, Writer, Film Director
- Photo:
- Photo:
In 2006, Kate Hudson won a libel case against the National Enquirer after the paper suggested that she had an eating disorder in an article titled, "Goldie tells Kate: Eat something! And she listens!" The amount of Hudson's damages was undisclosed.
- Age: 45
- Birthplace: Los Angeles, California, USA
- Profession: Film Producer, Actor
Navy SEAL Chris Kyle claimed he punched former Minnesota governor and professional wrestler Jesse Ventura in a bar for disparaging the military. Ventura said the event never happened and sued the military hero for $1.8 million.
He didn't even stop when Kyle was slain at a Texas gun range. Eventually, Ventura made out with the cash, but he lost some pride in the fight.
- Age: 73
- Birthplace: Minneapolis, Minnesota, USA
- Profession: Talk show host, Wrestler, Politician, Television producer, Author
- Photo:
In 2012 Shakira took to the courts when some of her former employees threatened to divulge details of her private life unless she paid them half a million dollars.
That obviously didn't work out and she hit her extorting ex-employees with a lawsuit.
- Age: 47
- Birthplace: Barranquilla, Colombia
- Profession: Record producer, Entrepreneur, Musician, Singer-songwriter, Model
Shock rocker Marilyn Manson was shocked to learn that he was engaged to an "independent occult filmmaker" who had told multiple friends that Manson was "pro-Nazi" and racist. According to Manson's legal team she finally retracted the engagement statement, but followed that up by saying Manson refused to marry her because he “did not want to be seen with [African-American] women.”
Manson sought $50,000 relating to five cases of defamation.
- Age: 55
- Birthplace: USA, Ohio, Canton
- Profession: Film Score Composer, Poet, Record producer, Songwriter, Musician
- After an article in Woman's Day called Jim Carrey a "groper" and suggested that Alicia Silverstone, Jennifer Tilly, Drew Barrymore, and Courtney Love had refused to work with him because he was so gropey, he filed a suit based on the claim that the article made him sound "psychologically unstable."
- Age: 62
- Birthplace: Newmarket, Ontario, Canada
- Profession: Comedian, Film Producer, Screenwriter, Actor, Voice acting
After the statute of limitations ran out on the Bill Cosby's alleged sexual assault of the former model, she decided to sue him for defamation, claiming he “publicly branded her a liar” after she said in 2014 that he raped her over 30 years prior.
Citing emotional distress, loss of reputation, and loss of business over the incident, Dickinson sought an undisclosed sum.
- Age: 69
- Birthplace: Brooklyn, New York, USA
- Profession: Fashion Model, Model, Supermodel, Photographer
Rob Lowe, one of the seemingly nicest guys on television, was embroiled in a $1.5 million dispute with his family's nanny, in which he claimed she was trying to blackmail him in exchange for her not releasing malicious rumors.
Instead of paying her, he blogged about it on HuffPost and filed a defamation suit which he later dropped.
- Age: 60
- Birthplace: Charlottesville, Virginia, USA
- Profession: Television producer, Actor
After the Daily Mail claimed that Kate Winslet was lying about her work out routine in an article called "Should Kate Winslet win an Oscar for the world's most irritating actress?" she sued the paper for 25,000 British pounds - and won.
Afterwards she said, "I was particularly upset to be accused of lying about my exercise regime and felt that I had a responsibility to request an apology in order to demonstrate my commitment to the views that I have always expressed about body issues, including diet and exercise."
- Age: 48
- Birthplace: Reading, Berkshire, England, UK
- Profession: Actor, Voice acting, Singer
In 2011, Hulk Hogan's ex-wife, Linda Bollea, claimed that Hogan was in a homosexual relationship with fellow professional wrestler Brutus Beefcake while she was out promoting her memoir. The Hulkster's attorney was quoted as saying, "Miss Bollea's made enough of these outrageous allegations that it's time they stop. The only realistic way of making them stop is through the court system."
The suit was dropped a year later.
- Age: 71
- Birthplace: Augusta, Georgia, USA
- Profession: Wrestler, Television producer, Entrepreneur, Musician, Film Producer
- Photo:
- Taylor Hill/FilmMagic
- Getty Images
Las Vegas mogul Steve Wynn won $40 million in damages after suing Girls Gone Wild's Joe Francis for going on Good Morning America and describing death threats he'd received from Wynn.
After it was proven that no such threats existed, the case quickly unfolded.
- Age: 82
- Birthplace: New Haven, Connecticut, USA
- Profession: Businessperson, Entrepreneur
- Photo:
- Photo:
In 2010, when Bret Michaels showed up at a venue in Syracuse, New York, he found out that the show had been canceled. He was so mad about the whole thing that he filed a $5 million suit against the concert promoter who allegedly claimed that the show didn't go on because Michaels was going to appear on TV instead.
But thanks to the miracle of modern technology, Michaels could have appeared on America's Got Talent AND played his show at the same time, if only the promoter had realized that Michael's portion of the show had been pre-taped.
- Age: 61
- Birthplace: Butler, Pennsylvania, USA
- Profession: Television producer, Musician, Film Producer, Screenwriter, Actor
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Fact-checked by:Jules Burke
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Legal Matters
Laws. They're what separate us from the animals. Well, most of us.
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