NBC/David LaChapelleA California judge has cleared the way for Blake Shelton’s suit against In Touch Weekly to proceed, according to The Hollywood Reporter. The star of The Voice sued the magazine over its September cover, “The Real Story: REHAB for Blake.”
Lawyers for In Touch argued the libel suit should be thrown out, saying they hadn’t defamed the country singer because “it would be entirely commendable for Shelton to seek rehab considering his undisputed history of bragging about his own drunkenness and his well-publicized behavior while under the influence of alcohol.”
Judge Christina A. Snyder sided with Blake, asserting the magazine ran the headline, knowing all the while Blake was not, in fact, in rehab.
“A reasonable person viewing the In Touch headlines and sub-headlines — which were located 30 pages away from the Article — might well have concluded that Shelton had, in fact, entered ‘REHAB’ after ‘his friends begged him to stop joking about drinking & get help,’” Snyder said in her finding.
The ruling is believed to be a good sign for Blake, since the burden was also on his attorney Larry Stein to establish he has a reasonable probability of being able to prove his case, before the lawsuit could proceed.
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