David Hasselhoff wins damages and apology from OK! after the mag claimed he was drinking after winning custody suit
HOLLYWOOD, CA (Hollywood Today/AFP) 9/24/07 — Actor David Hasselhoff, calling won a libel suit Friday against British gossip magazine OK!, which claimed he was drunk and rude at a Los Angeles nightclub. He said the article in question was “an outrage” and “personally damaging.”
The story implied he went out drinking right after winning widely-publicized custody battle over his daughters when his sobriety was an issue. The “Baywatch” actor’s lawyer said he was undergoing substance testing and could not have had a drinking bout. “For some time, he has been independently tested and verified as not having drunk alcohol, including on the day and the day following the custody ruling,” he added.
Hasselhoff, also known for “Knight Rider”, has struggled with alcohol abuse in the past, most notably on bender with a burger that was videotaped by his daughter to remind him what he was like when dirnking, Hasselhoff has apparently been clean for a while and the claims in OK! magazine and its US edition were “completely false.”
The weekly publications claimed in July that Hasselhoff was “off his face” and “abusive” in a Los Angeles nightspot after winning a custody battle over his daughters.
His lawyer, Simon Smith, said that Hasselhoff had been, and still was, abstaining from alcohol, “a previous problem for him.”
Smith said that the club’s manager had confirmed his client was not drinking, and that the two magazines’ publishers accepted that the claims were false and will now run apologies.
Hasselhoff will also receive substantial, though undisclosed, damages, Smith told the court. OK! is owned by Northern and Shell, a British publishing group that also includes the Daily Express newspaper in London.
The star said afterwards: “The very day these lies surfaced, I had made a promise not only to the court, but also to my daughters that I absolutely would not drink alcohol and I shall continue to do my best to keep that promise.
“To say that hours later I reneged on that promise and was drunkenly abusing people in a bar was not only an outrage to me and my family but damaging professionally as well.”