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Elton John demands £150k from Guardian over 'offensive, nasty and snide'
article
26 September 2008
By Sarah Limbrick
Sir Elton John is demanding damages of £150,000 from the Guardian for a
"gratuitously offensive, nasty and snide" piece written by columnist
Marina Hyde.
He is already embroiled in a legal battle with his former manager, Bob
Halley, after issuing a writ against him in January. The pop star has
managed to get his court action against Halley, his personal assistant
and manager for thirty years, made private after applying to the Royal
Courts of Justice.
But now he is suing Guardian News and Media and accuses Hyde of using a
gratuitously offensive, nasty and snide tone with sneering allusions to
his racist and uncaring attitudes, and is demanding damages of £150,000.
Hyde’s piece in Guardian Weekend meant that his commitment to the Elton
John Aids Foundation is so insincere that he hosts the annual White Tie
and Tiara Ball knowing that once costs have been covered, only a small
amount is available for good causes, he says.
Her piece also meant that he uses the ball to meet celebrities and for
self promotion rather than raising money for his charity and the good
causes it supports, according to a High Court writ.
John says that in fact his glittering ball raised at least £10m for
charity this year and that he is deeply committed to fundraising for
charity. Her false allegations are particularly damaging to his
reputation and are likely to discourage people from attending his
charity events, the writ claims.
John's solicitors wrote to the Guardian’s editor on 7 July, asking for
the piece to be removed from the paper’s website and for the paper’s
legal department to hold onto her cuttings, notes, notebooks and drafts.
The paper declined to assure him it would preserve the documents to be
obstructive, he says.
His letter was leaked to The Independent, which published a story
headed: “Sir Elton calls in the lawyers as satirical piece strikes a
wrong note” and Sir Elton blames the Guardian for this. The Guardian
denied any leak to The Independent, the writ says.
He argues that his complaint was dismissed in a high-handed and arrogant
manner and claims that the paper failed to answer questions from his
solicitors, to leave the paper with as much room for future manoeuvring
as possible, and to place as much doubt in his mind as possible, in the
hope of dissuading him from bringing proceedings.
Although The Guardian took down the piece temporarily, it was reinstated
on 15 July on the website, despite his plans to sue for libel, the writ
says.
John is seeking damages and aggravated damages for libel, and an
injunction banning repetition of the allegations at the centre of his claim.
The Guardian declined to comment on the ongoing litigation.
In May 2006, the Daily Mail agreed to pay Sir Elton £100,000 in libel
damages over false claims that he had issued an edict to guests invited
to his White Tie and Tiara charity ball telling them not to speak to him
unless he approached them.
And in February 2006 the pop singer accepted undisclosed libel damages
from the Sunday Times after it alleged that he had acted "in a
self-important, arrogant and rude manner" at his Aids Foundation's
summer ball.
John has a history of run-ins with the press. In December 1988, The Sun
reached an out-of-court settlement with him, believed to be worth £1
million, over a series of stories that included false allegations that
the singer had been involved with rent boys and had ordered the removal
of his guard dogs' larynxes.
In 1993, he won £300,000 in damages from the Sunday Mirror over false
claims that he was suffering from bulimia. This was cut to £75,000 on
appeal.
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guardian.co.uk logo
About this article
A peek at the diary of ... Elton John
This article appeared in the Guardian on Saturday July 05 2008 on p16 of
the Features & comment section. It was last updated at 18:15 on July 22
2008.
A peek at the diary of ... Elton John
* Saturday July 5 2008
What a few days it's been. First I sang Happy Birthday to my dear, dear
friend Nelson Mandela - I like to think I'm one of the few people
privileged enough to call him Madiba - at a party specially organised to
provide white celebrities with a chance to be photographed cuddling him,
wearing that patronisingly awestruck smile they all have. It says: "I
love you, you adorable, apartheid-fighting teddy bear."
The next night I welcomed the exact same crowd to my place for my annual
White Tie & Tiaras ball. Lulu, Kelly Osbourne, Agyness Deyn, Richard
Desmond, Liz Hurley, Bill Clinton - I met most of them 10 minutes ago,
but we have something very special and magical in common: we're all
members of the entertainment industry. You can't manufacture a
connection like that.
Naturally, everyone could afford just to hand over the money if they
gave that much of a toss about Aids research - as could the sponsors.
But we like to give guests a preposterously lavish evening, because
they're the kind of people who wouldn't turn up for anything less. They
fork out small fortunes for new dresses and so on, the sponsors blow
hundreds of thousands on creating what convention demands we call a
"magical world", and everyone wears immensely smug "My diamonds are by
Chopard" grins in the newspapers and OK!. Once we've subtracted all
these costs, the leftovers go to my foundation. I call this care-o-nomics.
As seen by Marina Hyde
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