Jeff Bezos’ Lawyer Is Known for Scaring Tabloids Away From Hollywood Celebrities
Jeff Bezos’ Lawyer Is Known for Scaring Tabloids Away From Hollywood Celebrities
(Bloomberg) -- Jeff Bezos enlisted one of Hollywood’s biggest legal guns to take on the National Enquirer over its threat to publish personal photos of the Amazon.com Inc. founder: Marty Singer, who has made a name for himself by scaring the tabloids away from his celebrity clients.
“Marty Singer is a long-time consigliere to Hollywood royalty and he is a bulldog,” said Larry Iser, an attorney with Kinsella Weitzman Iser Kump & Aldiser LLP in Santa Monica, Calilfornia. “Marty is the perfect pick for Bezos’s fight with the Enquirer.”
Singer’s list of clients includes Arnold Schwarzenegger, Bruce Willis, John Travolta and Sharon Stone among other A-list actors. The Brooklyn, New York-born lawyer has become particularly well-known for his letters to news outlets set to publish a potentially embarrassing story about one of his clients, warning them about the dire consequences of publishing false and defamatory information.
Los Angeles-based Singer, 66, isn’t afraid to go beyond threats. In 2011, he sued Warner Bros. on behalf of Charlie Sheen after the actor was fired from “Two and a Half Men.” That case was settled out of court for a reported $25 million.
His willingness to sue and his experience dealing with the National Enquirer will make him a formidable adversary if Bezos decides to take the tabloid to court, said Bryan Sullivan, an attorney with Early Sullivan Wright Gizer & McRae LLP in Los Angeles.
“He’s a very aggressive attorney and he is very knowledgeable about privacy law and defamation and false light claims,” Sullivan said. “Marty can take a case to trial and that’s one of the reasons he gets favorable settlements for his clients.”
Last week, Bezos accused American Media Inc., the publisher of the Enquirer, of blackmail and extortion and made public emails sent to Singer by AMI executives. The emails listed private photos the Enquirer had of Bezos and offered not to publish them if Bezos would acknowledge that a previous expose of him and his girlfriend, Lauren Sanchez, wasn’t politically motivated.
American Media has denied Bezos’s allegations. Singer didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.
To contact the reporter on this story: Edvard Pettersson in Los Angeles at epettersson@bloomberg.net
To contact the editors responsible for this story: Elizabeth Wollman at ewollman@bloomberg.net, Peter Blumberg
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