Celebrities and the Law in 2011
It’s been a busy year for the rich, famous and infamous, with plenty of big names filing or defending lawsuits, and some finding themselves on the wrong side of the law.
January
In 2009, Courtney Love took her disagreement with a designer to Twitter, labeling her a “drug-pushing prostitute.” Defamation proceedings began early this year and the case was poised to be the first matter where a jury would be called upon to consider whether tweets can be libel, but in March Dawn Simorangkir settled her libel suit against Love for US$430,000.
The year started off badly for Lindsay Lohan and things only seemed to get worse. The troubled actress was arrested in January for stealing a gold necklace. She was found guilty and sentenced to 360 hours of community service and 35 days of house arrest. While under house arrest, Lohan threw several parties and at one stage failed an alcohol test, which landed her back in court, with the judge banning her from hosting parties for the balance of her house arrest. In October, Lohan’s probation was revoked for failing to perform community service and attend counseling, and in November she was sentenced to 30 days imprisonment.
February
Ashlee Simpson and Fall Out Boy’s Pete Wentz filed for divorce in LA.
Matthew Newton appeared in court in on charges of breaching an AVO against former fiancé Rachael Taylor by calling the actress. Mental health provisions saw the charges against Newton dismissed in April.
Sharon Stone took out an AVO against a man who broke into her house and claimed that he owned the property and that his parents were Bill and Hillary Clinton.
David Beckham’s case against a US gossip magazine, which claimed that he had visited a prostitute on several occasions, was dismissed. Beckham’s legal team said they planned to appeal the decision.
Mickey Rooney secured a restraining order against his stepson who is alleged to have stopped the actor from leaving his house, interfering with his finances and withholding food and medication.
Rihanna’s restraining order against Chris Brown was revised, with Brown now prevented from being within three metres of the Umbrella singer at industry functions.
March
Queensland’s Office of Fair trading launched an investigation into a children’s charity run by former Who Dares Wins host turned Bollywood actress Tania Zaetta. These investigations confirmed in May that the Peace for the Children charity had not been registered, and all funds raised were transferred to another children’s charity.
Katie Holmes began libel proceedings against a US gossip magazine over an article that suggested the star had an addiction. Holmes is seeking US$50 million in damages.
Charlie Sheen also kicked off a court claim in March, suing Warner Brothers for US$100 million for breach of contract arising from his sacking from Two and a Half Men. Sheen and his ex-wife Brooke Mueller were also in court several times during 2011 battling for custody of their two year old twins and arguing about Sheen’s child support payments.
Events of May 2010 came back to haunt Jonathan Rhys Meyers when a United Airlines staff member issued proceedings against the actor for the physical and emotional damage she claimed he caused when he allegedly assaulted her while drunk at a New York airport. It seems that travel does not agree with the actor. In November this year a Paris court fined him 1000 Euros and issued a one-month suspended sentence over a separate drunken altercation which occurred at Charles de Gaulle airport in 2009.
One of the funnier celebrity law suits of 2011 was Quentin Tarantino’s lawsuit against his neighbour Alan Ball, an Oscar-winning screenwriter whose vocal macaws have apparently been distracting Tarantino from working on his next film.
An extra’s US$250,000 sexual harassment case against David Boreanaz (aka FBI Special Agent Booth for Bones fans) was dismissed.
The then Italian Prime Minister, Silvio Berlusconi was put on trial for paying for sex with someone below the legal age for prostitution, and George Clooney was among the list of possible witnesses provided to the court.
April
While most people were speculating about the dress Kate Middleton would wear for her wedding to Prince William, UK divorce lawyers were in the press recommending that the couple sign a pre-nuptial agreement.
A Victorian County Court jury found Kevan Stralow, former manager of Jamie Oliver’s Fifteen restaurant in Melbourne, guilty of one count of arson (burning down the restaurant’s office) and sixteen counts of larceny (stealing from the restaurant’s takings). In July he was sentenced to five and a half years gaol time.
The UK Court of Appeal issued a gagging order preventing the publication of a story about a British celebrity’s affair. The Court issued the injunction saying that protecting the star’s children from bullying at school outweighed any interests of free speech in this case.
Michael Douglas and his ex-wife Diandra Douglas were also in court this month battling over his earnings from the Wall Street sequel, Money Never Sleeps. The pair’s 2000 divorce settlement guaranteed Diandra a cut of income coming out of projects he undertook during their marriage. The parties’ lawyers disagree over whether Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps falls within this provision.
May
Oscar-winning actor Tom Hanks unsuccessfully sued the builders of his property in Sun Valley, which he claimed had serious defects. Hanks and his wife were not awarded a cent of the US$3 million in damages they were seeking and were ordered to pay the other party’s costs in the matter.
Arnold Schwarzenegger and wife Maria Shriver announced their split this month. In July, Shriver moved to make her separation official when she filed for divorce. But an impending divorce wouldn’t have been the only thing on Arnie’s mind, with the ex-husband of Schwarzenegger’s maid, (with whom the Terminator star had an affair and fathered a child) announcing plans to sue his ex-wife and the actor for conspiracy to falsify a public document: the ex-husband, not Arnie, is listed on the child’s birth certificate as father.
June
JLo was in court this month over videos taken on honeymoon with her first husband, which her ex is now considering to sell to porn websites.
In mid-June the family division of London’s High Court granted Liz Hurley a divorce from former husband textile tycoon Arun Nayar.
The High Court in London granted Sienna Miller an injunction against News Corp accessing her private information this month, with the company apologizing and paying the actress £100,000 in damages and legal costs. In the same month, actor Jude Law sued the Sun newspaper over hacking incidents.
Two men were arrested in June over an alleged kidnap and murder plot targeting UK singer Joss Stone.
Designer John Galliano appeared in a French court on charges arising from alleged anti-Semitic and anti-Asian insults made to a couple in a bar. The designer claimed that at the time he was suffering from several addictions said he did not remember the event. Dior suspended its creative director pending the outcome of the case.
July
Sharon Stone’s former gardener successfully sued the actress for negligence resulting in injuries after he fell in her yard. The star was ordered to pay more than US$200,000 in compensation.
UK Prime Minister David Cameron launched an inquiry into the phone-hacking allegations made against Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, with numerous celebrities, such as Sienna Miller, Hugh Grant and JK Rowling providing testimony. Alleged phone hacking targets included victims of high profile crimes all the way up to the royal family. That same month, Hugh Grant filed a related claim against London’s Metropolitan Police. The inquiry is due to hand down its report in late 2012.
Kim Kardashian sued US clothing chain Old Navy for violating her intellectual property by using actress Melissa Molinaro, who looks similar to Kardashian, in their commercials.
Supermodel Linda Evangelista filed for child support payments in New York’s Family Court. Evangelista is seeking $46,000 per month from French businessman Francois-Henri Pinault, who is married to Salma Hayek.
Monaco’s royal newlyweds, Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene experienced more than their fair share of rumors in the lead up to their marriage, including gossip that Charlene had attempted to flee the principality days before the wedding. In late July, Monaco’s Minister of State announced the royal couple’s intention to sue French magazine L’Express for publishing rumors about Charlene’s attempted escape from Monaco, and a third love child fathered by Albert.
Gossip Girl’s Leighton Meester and her mother kicked off what will likely be a bitter legal battle. Leighton claimed that her mother misused money she gave her to pay for her brother’s medical care. The actress said her mother used this money to pay for plastic surgery. Constance Meester filed a counter claim saying that her daughter assaulted her with a water bottle in 2010 and has breached a verbal contract in which she promised to pay her mother $10,000 every month.
August
Beyonce’s little sister Solange was not happy when bouncers at a Miami nightclub would not let her take a giant inflatable banana into the venue. A police officer is alleged to have pulled out a knife and said he would pop the banana. Knowles later tweeted that she had experienced police discrimination, and Miami police launched an internal investigation into the events of the evening.
Celebrity chef Gordon Ramsay began proceedings against his in-laws in London’s High Court. Ramsay accused his father-in-law of taking more than £1.4 million from his company in order to maintain a second, secret family.
Buzz Aldrin filed a lawsuit against his wife (whom he is divorcing) and step-daughter in an attempt to regain control of his name. In 2007, the astronaut unwittingly signed an agreement that essentially handed over ownership of his public persona to the pair.
September
Mel Gibson and former partner Oksana Grigorieva settled their custody dispute and finalised child support arrangements. It was a long and messy road to settlement for the couple, with Gibson charged with misdemeanor battery which occurred during an argument between the pair in 2010, and Grigorieva’s secret recording of an argument (in which Gibson made racist comments) investigated as attempted extortion. Gibson’s divorce from Robyn Moore, his wife of more than 30 years, was a far quieter affair. The split was finalised in December.
Sarah Jessica Parker was less than happy with a New York Times article that reported the Sex and the City star had complained about jury duty. Parker attended jury selection at Manhattan Federal Court, but ultimately was not required as the jury was filled before she was called. Parker says she has served on a jury on several occasions and that she has been asked to speak at Jury Appreciation Day.
October
Heather Mills’ former hairdresser sued her for US$80,000 owing from unpaid hairstyling services. Just in case you’re wondering, his fees are US$5,000 a day.
Top Gear host Jeremy Clarkson applied to the court for the lifting of an injunction he’d previously secured against his first wife, preventing her from writing about an alleged affair they had after Clarkson married his second wife.
On Halloween, single mum Mariah Yeater filed a paternity suit against pop star Justin Bieber, claiming that he was the father of her four-month old son. The case has since been dropped, with Yeater pursuing the matter outside court.
November
After only 72 days of marriage, Kim Kardashian and Kris Humphries called it quits, with Kardashian filing for divorce. But the reality star also has another case on her mind. She sued her former publicist for slander when he told a TV show the Kardashian-Humphries wedding was staged.
In September Olympic swimmer Kenrick Monk told police that he had been hit by a car. Days later he revealed that the real cause of his injuries was a fall from his skateboard. Luckily for him the Queensland Police ultimately decided not to prosecute.
In September Australian fashion designer Collette Dinnigan was delighted to hear that Kate Middleton had worn one of her dresses to an event, so she put out a press release that included images of the Duchess of Cambridge wearing said dress. The only problem was that Dinnigan forgot to pay or seek the permission of the photographer of those pictures. In November the photographer announced that he would pursue the designer for copyright infringement. Dinnigan’s legal team says there was no infringement as the release acknowledged the photographer and was a fair dealing as it was reporting the news.
Actor Toby Maguire was probably pretty happy when he won more than US$300,000 at a high-stakes poker game. The only problem was that the man he won it from had been running a pyramid scheme and a bankruptcy trustee was keen to claw back whatever funds were available. In November Maguire settled the matter for US$80,000.
Elle Macpherson’s former business adviser fronted the UK phone hacking inquiry this month and testified that the model had fired her for revealing information to the press that later turned out to have been obtained through phone hacking.
In the US, Michael Jackson’s doctor, Conrad Murray, was found guilty of involuntary manslaughter over the singer’s overdose death and sentenced to four years imprisonment. The widespread social media coverage of the high-profile trial seems to have caused some headaches for the judge.
December
A German court found super model Nadja Auermann guilty of tax evasion and fined her 90,000 Euros.
The trial of a man accused of hacking Christina Aguilera and Scarlett Johansson’s email accounts is scheduled to begin this month. The accused is said to have found nude photos of Johansson in her email account and shared them with several websites. He pleaded not guilty to the charges at a court appearance in LA last month.
And in the dying days of 2011 comedian Russell Brand and singer Katy Perry filed for divorce after only 14 months of marriage.