Important Appellate Win Against The Hollywood Reporter
In 2017, we filed a libel case in Chicago against Prometheus Global Media, publisher of The Hollywood Reporter, on behalf of a client called Nicole Basile. In a disgraceful example of reckless journalism, THR published an article which clearly implied that Nicole was responsible for the Sony hack-attack. This was false, but the article devastated Nicole’s career.
After we beat all 4 of Prometheus anti-SLAPP and jurisdictional motions in the trial court, Prometheus appealed. On JUne 30, 2020, the Illinois Court of Appeal affirmed the trial court’s decisions, establishing some important issues. https://courts.illinois.gov/R23_Orders/AppellateCourt/2020/1stDistrict/1190602_R23.pdf
The case will now proceed to trial. The main facts are not in dispute – the disagreement is over whether the statements in the THR article are defamatory, and the appellate court found that they certainly are, e.g., ¶58: “the article clearly and unmistakably conveyed that plaintiff was the ex Sony-employee responsible for the cyber attack. Thus, the article is defamatory on its face.” It doesn’t come clearer than that.
Kudos to our co-counsel, Rod Smolla (author of Smolla on Defamation), for great work.