This week a federal judge ruled that Howard K. Stern’s defamation lawsuit could not focus on allegations of homosexual activities in a recent book.
According to Reuters, the late Anna Nicole Smith’s friend Stern had sued author Rita Cosby (pictured, via) and the Hachette Book Group for 19 allegedly libelous statements in Cosby’s book, “Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death.” Federal Judge Denny Chin dropped eight claims, and ruled that Hachette should not be involved in the lawsuit since the publisher had “no reason to doubt the truth of the book.”
The Morning Media Menu discussed the case today as well. Here’s more from the article: “Chin dismissed Stern’s claims that statements implying he was homosexual were defamatory … But he noted Cosby, who is also a television reporter, had to answer to claims that she knew some of her sources were not truthful.”