Keira Knightley, Teri Hatcher, Lily Allen. We “know” these people, because they are relentlessly thrown at us via tabloid magazines at every checkout counter. These celebrities have one thing in common: they have all had problems with the tabloids whether it’s an allegation of sex in a van with several men or simply doing drugs. We all remember the threat to sue by Jessica Alba against Playboy for using her photo from another photo shoot on the cover of Playboy Magazine on the grounds of misappropriation for the purpose of profit. With the use of flashy titles and scintillating photographs, tabloids easily mislead the public in news of their fave celebs.
In December 2006, the Daily Mail used a photo of Keira Knightley in a bikini with their story of 19-year old Sophie Mazurek’s death from anorexia. Sophie’s mother “blamed the fashion and film industries - increasingly populated by size zero icons - for contributing to her daughter's death.” I do agree that these images in the media to present females with unhealthily-thin icons. However, I do maintain a libertarian stance in that there is so much information out in the world, it is up to the individual to be the gatekeeper in terms of how they interpret the media. We cannot say that every gun fight in the movies is going to lead to a shooting. In January 2007, Knightley launched a libel action against the Daily Mail for suggesting that she was losing too much weight and could be anorexic and attributing the anorexia-induced death to the waify actress. The lawyers also sought retribution for the defamation of their client by publishing false stories. In another Daily Mail article a month later Knightley stated that although she did not suffer from anorexia herself, her grandmother and great-grandmother struggled with the disease, which they also butchered to make it seem as if Knightley suffered from eating disorders.
In the case of Peoples Bank and Trust Co. v. Globe International Publishing Inc., Nellie Mitchell was a 97-year old woman who worked at a newsstand and delivered newspapers in her city Mountain Home in Baxter County, Arkansas for almost 50 years. Since she was a local legend and well known for her long record of service, she was deemed newsworthy in 1980 by the National Examiner and Sun. Globe. which ran news stories of her. In 1990 however, the same photo used in for the news stories in 1980 were used again to accompany an article titled, “Pregnancy forces Granny to Quit Work at Age 101.” was falsely claimed by the Globe to be retiring due to pregnancy. By misusing Mitchell’s photo, like the Daily Mail’s use of Keira Knightley’s photo, she was linked to a completely fictitious story as an Australian mail carrier who became pregnant in an extra-marital affair via her route. She sued under the false light invasion of privacy. In the As stated in Benz. v. Washington Newspaper Publishing Co. a “false light invasion of privacy claim requires a showing of 1) publicity 2) about a false statement, representation or imputation 3) understood to be of and concerning the plaintiff and 4) which places the plaintiff in a false light that would be highly offensive to a reasonable person.” Knightley’s pains were similar to Benz’s in that it is “highly offensive to a reasonable person.” I guess this goes to show, not everything in the celebrity world is glitzy, and that famous or not, the tabloids will get you!