SSL-DOCS1 1165260v1 11/28/01 03:27pm

Aretha Franklin Files $50 Million Defamation Lawsuit

Against Tabloid Star Magazine

Recording Star Claims Tabloid’s Allegations Have Prevented Her from Pursuing Career Detroit, MI, November 28, 2001….Legendary recording artist Aretha Franklin today filed a $50 million defamation lawsuit against American Media, Inc., publisher of the tabloid Star magazine. The lawsuit stems from a December 2000 article published by Star magazine, “Aretha Franklin Drinking Herself into Grave,” which claims that Ms. Franklin abuses alcohol, that her alleged dependency was a cause for her canceling numerous concert performances, as well as a threat to her career and health. In the claim, filed against American Media in the Federal District Court of Michigan, Wayne County, Ms. Franklin alleges that Star fabricated the claim of alcohol abuse, and the tabloid’s editorial has subsequently impaired her ability to pursue her chosen profession. “By publishing this vicious assault on a beloved cultural icon, the Star has reconfirmed that it has no journalistic standards,” said Barry Langberg, a partner in the Los Angeles office of the law firm Stroock & Stroock & Lavan, who is representing the 15-time Grammy winner. Ms. Franklin is also being represented by Deborah Drooz of Stroock & Stroock & Lavan. The firm’s First Amendment lawyers have been the attorneys in many of the most noteworthy libel cases of the past 25 years, including representations of Carol Burnett, Shirley Jones, Steve Wynn, Martha Stewart, Rodney Dangerfield and Berry Gordy. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan LLP is a law firm with a sophisticated national and international practice serving clients that include the entertainment industry. Stroock entertainment litigators frequently provide counsel in high-profile defamation matters, as well as a broad range of legal services to film and television studios, multimedia, production, and distribution companies of all kinds, magazine and newspaper publishers, record companies and music publishers, and individual writers, directors, actors, producers, and executives. Stroock has offices in New York, Los Angeles, and Miami.

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