Eastwood launches €9m lawsuit
Actor Clint Eastwood has launched a €9m court action over an unauthorised biography which he says portrays him as an wife beater.
In the action, which was filed in San Jose, California, on Christmas Eve, Eastwood accuses St Martin’s Press and author Patrick McGilligan of lying about him and “setting out intentionally to destroy his reputation both as a maker of motion pictures and as a man.”
“The book is riddled with false statements,” said Marshall Grossman, Eastwood’s lawyer. “The book is really a scandal sheet masquerading as a book.”
McGilligan, stood by his book, Clint: The Life and Legend.
“He has sued people religiously,” McGilligan said. “He’s made a career of suppressing dissidence. I’m a very honest, factual reporter who had no preconception of Clint Eastwood.”
The book was first published in Britain several years ago and was released in the United States in August.
It claims Eastwood “cold-cocked” and “decked” his first wife, Maggie, according to the suit.
“It did not happen,” the suit said, adding that Maggie Eastwood and the “supposed source of this information will both attest” to that.
But McGilligan said Fritz Manes, Eastwood’s friend and the producer of several of his films including Pale Rider and Every Which Way But Loose, witnessed the alleged fight and he has no reason to think Manes lied about it.
McGilligan said about 80% of the information in his book was culled from interviews Eastwood has given over the years. The remainder was based on McGilligan’s original reporting.
The book also calls Eastwood “stingy,” claims he’s an atheist and says he was kicked out of school more than once.
There are several more “egregious and personally offensive statements” contained in the book and not mentioned in the suit, Grossman said.
Eastwood wants damages for the tarnishing of his “reputation and standing in the community, mortification and embarrassment.” He’s also asked for unspecified punitive damages.
McGilligan said he was upset, but not surprised by the suit.
“I’m fascinated by how this little David in Milwaukee has hurt Goliath,” he said.
