Elton John famously hates rude behaviour – after all, he’s the man who called a bunch of Taiwanese photographers "rude, vile pigs" – so when a newspaper called him rude, he took its ass to court.
Elton has accepted libel damages from The Sunday Times after it claimed that he swanned about all rude at a charity benefit ball that he hosted. And now he has a bunch more money from the settlement, Elton John can buy more flowers and wigs and pay for more under-performing albums to be made. Not really, the money will be donated to his AIDS foundation. We were just kidding. Please don’t sue us, Elton.
Good old Elton John (CDs). If you ever a fully grown man to dress up as
Donald Duck, or sing a hastily rewritten song at a funeral, or shout
"MAIL!" during a Post Office advert, Elton’s your man. Similarly, if you
want to get sued for libel by writing an article about what a rude
little oik a celebrity is, Elton is also your man for that.
Last June, The Sunday Times printed an article entitled Rock Royals
Get Too Grand, which claimed that Elton was rude, arrogant and
self-important way during his annual White Tie and Tiara ball, held to
raise money for his AIDS foundation. Moreover, the article claimed that
Elton John ordered guests not to speak to him unless he spoke to them
first. And that, Elton quickly realised, is libel. So he took The
Sunday Times to court. Elton’s solicitor Hanna Basha told the court
that:
"The story caused Sir Elton considerable embarrassment and distress,
particularly because he feared it would be damaging to his fundraising
efforts."
Times
Newspapers Ltd quickly realised that the article was completely false
and withdrew the whole ‘rude’ allegation while issuing a full apology
to Elton John and paying damages. Solicitor for The Sunday Times,
Alastair Brett, said:
"As soon as the defendant found out the story was untrue – it had been
picked up from another newspaper – it immediately apologised to Sir
Elton and it is happy to repeat that apology here today."
Elton
John wasn’t around for the settlement, as he was probably trying
desperately to save his Lestat musical, which has been getting terrible
previews. Or he was doing something else. We don’t know. Really, Elton,
please don’t sue us. We can’t state that enough.
Read more:
Sir Elton wins libel damages – Channel Four
[story by Stuart Heritage]