Dear Gossips,
The Golden Globe nominations are coming on Thursday, exactly one month before the show on January 10, 2016. Lee Daniels could be there to represent Empire. Can someone please invite Sean Penn too?
As you recall, Lee namechecked Sean in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter a few months ago when answering a question about Terrence Howard’s reputation. Click here for a refresher. And after all that’s been written about Sean Penn over the years, after all the times we’ve heard about his violent and fisty ways, he decides it’s Lee Daniels he wants to go after? Sean Penn is suing Lee for defamation.
On Thursday, Lee countered with a motion to dismiss the suit, with his lawyers writing that he refuses to be intimidated and that what he said is protected by free speech. Lee’s motion also cites a number of published articles referring to Sean’s “Horrifying History of Alleged Abuse”.
“With fame, money and high-priced legal counsel, Penn has the power to buy most things. Fortunately for Daniels, the First Amendment is not for sale. Penn’s complaint is merely a blunt force instrument wielded in an attempt to control the narrative of his life and to expunge the alleged misdeeds sensationalized in the press for decades. While Penn may have personally experienced the challenged statement as offensive, he must now demonstrate that the statement is reasonably susceptible to a defamatory meaning. He has not, and cannot. The challenged statement is constitutionally protected opinion, and New York courts have repeatedly emphasized the need to summarily reject defamation claims brought to bully those who dare exercise their constitutional right of free speech."
Did Sean Penn expect Lee Daniels to put his head down and apologise?
Is he prepared to go to trial and have a court analyse Lee’s comments, and offer proof that before Lee made those comments, his public image was pristine? Show me, is what Lee Daniels is telling him, chest out, arms wide open.
Yours in gossip,
Lainey
