Page 29 - atoday
P. 29
PEOPLE & ARTS A29
Tuesday 20 October 2015
Superb new biography Blake Shelton sues In Touch
of the King of Pop Weekly over rehab story
ANTHONY McCARTNEY
AP Entertainment Writer
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Blake
Shelton sued the tabloid
magazine In Touch Weekly
on Monday over a cover
story claiming heavy
drinking by the country
music star contributed to
his divorce from Miranda
Lambert and that he was
headed to rehab.
Shelton’s defamation
lawsuit filed in Los Angeles
County Superior Court
seeks more than $1 million
in damages over the story
that his lawyers say is false.
The lawsuit against In Touch
publisher, Bauer Publishing
Co., contends the tabloid
has repeatedly published In this June 26, 2015 file photo, singer-songwriter Blake Shelton
performs on Day 1 of the 2015 Big Barrel Country Music Festival
false information about the at The Woodlands in Dover, Del.
singer and his breakup with Associated Press
Lambert.
“Blake Shelton has had album. has not hit rock bottom,”
In Touch published the the lawsuit states.
enough,” the lawsuit begins story in late September
that alleged Shelton was It accuses In Touch of
before refuting claims drinking heavily and that publishing the story without
his actions contributed to reaching out to the
made in the article and the end of his marriage singer’s lawyers or other
to Lambert. It previously representatives.
laying out the Grammy- published a story claiming The lawsuit states Shelton,
Shelton had cheated 39, has sought a retraction
nominated singer’s busy on Lambert and that of the story but received no
contributed to their response.
This photo provided by Scribner/Simon & Schuster shows the schedule. “Mr. Shelton is divorce. In addition to monetary
cover of the book, “MJ: The Genius of Michael Jackson,” by The rehab cover story also damages, Shelton is
author Steve Knopper not in rehab and has no proclaimed that Shelton seeking an injunction that
had hit “rock bottom.” would prevent In Touch
Associated Press plans to go to rehab.” “To be clear: Mr. Shelton from repeating allegations
in the disputed story.q
An email sent to publicists
Associated Press facial structure constrict for In Touch was not
Steve Knopper begins his him. Every time somebody
superb biography of Mi- tried to define him, he liter- immediately returned.
chael Jackson with an an- ally shifted his shape.”
ecdote about a protest Knopper, a contributing The lawsuit points out
against school integration editor to Rolling Stone, in-
in Jackson’s hometown terviewed hundreds of that Shelton continues to
of Gary, Indiana, in 1927, people to write this fasci-
more than three decades nating, fair-minded ac- work as a judge on NBC’s
before the singer was born. count of Jackson’s dazzling
Then he fast-forwards to rise to the pinnacle of pop “The Voice” and on an
1995, when the self-pro- music and his ignominious
claimed King of Pop is argu- fall. We learn the backstory upcoming greatest hits
ing with film director Rupert of the moonwalk, the mili-
Wainwright about whether tary jackets, white socks, PBS’ ‘Finding Your Roots’
to use a giant statue of glove, plastic surgery, skin
himself in the video for “HIS- whitening and more, all of returning in January
tory.” Wainwright thinks it’s it scrupulously document-
a little grandiose; Jackson ed with multiple sources. In this Nov. 14, 2014 file photo, Ben Affleck poses in the press omitted references to the
doesn’t agree. And while it’s evident from slaveholding past of Ben
“It had been 30 years since the title, “MJ: The Genius room with the Hollywood film award for “Gone Girl” at the Hol- Affleck’s ancestor at the
Michael had been the kid of Michael Jackson,” that actor’s request, will return
from the segregated Gary Knopper is a fan, he neither lywood Film Awards in Los Angeles. to public television for its
neighborhood who’d bare- mythologizes nor sensation- third season in January.
ly seen Chicago, much less alizes Jackson’s indisput- Associated Press The show has hired a new
the rest of the world,” writes ably weird life. The by-now fact-checker and two new
Knopper. “He’d spent his familiar story begins in Gary DAVID BAUDER popular “Finding Your genealogists as part of its
first five or six years on the in the early 1960s, when reforms,
planet with nothing but Jackson, a prodigy at age AP Television Writer Roots” series, temporarily said the network’s Beth
walls and boundaries, and 6, starts performing with his Hoppe on Monday. PBS
by 1995 he wanted no older brothers as the Jack- NEW YORK (AP) — PBS’ shelved after an episode had suspended the series
limits at all. He refused to son 5 under the tyrannical after determining that the
let race, gender, musical supervision of their father. show’s producers violated
styles, family, even his own q standards by allowing Af-
fleck undue influence on
its content and failing to
inform the network of his
request.q
