12 Litigious Celebrities Who Set the Tabloids Back a Few Million Bucks
![12 Litigious Celebrities Who Set the Tabloids Back a Few Million Bucks](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/4/0/8/903408_320x180.jpg)
Celebrities being hounded by the media is a tale as old as… Well, it honestly can’t be that old, right? One sec. Okay, so Google tells us that the earliest known “paparazzi” pic is of Empress Elisabeth of Austria, taken by a guy only known as “Baader” in 1880. So, it seems like, as long as rich and famous people are out and about, someone will be there to “document” it. The question is, if they’re interesting enough to spark a tabloid industry with thousands (possibly millions — we’re not stopping to Google anything else) of careers devoted to the ongoings of their lives, then why would the tabloids need to fabricate stories, or even doctor images?
It’s icky to admit, but that industry has gotten so competitive that they’ll do anything for our attention. Even ickier is that we’d probably just believe it and move on with our day. Making stuff up is way easier than finding the lame old truth. Like, did you guys know that Johnny Depp and Tom Cruise made out last night?! See, typing that was so easy. They didn’t. We’re joking. And we’d love to not find ourselves on the business end of these 12 litigious celebrities who set the tabloids back a few million bucks.
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The matron saint of libel suits.
![NATIONAL ER EN Carol Burnett AEIGN was a pioneer in tabloid defamation cases. She sued the National Enquirer for implying that she was belligerent at a dinner with Henry Kissinger in 1976. She was awarded $200,000 (which she donated to journalism courses), and this case is often cited in more recent celebrity defamation cases. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/8/902788.jpg)
Sticks and stones may break the bank.
![Daily Mai Kate Winslet sued The Daily Mail for calling her annoying. In 2009, she took them to London's High Court and won $40,000 over the article, Should Kate Winslet win an Oscar for the world's most irritating actress? CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/1/902791.jpg)
So he got somewhere between $0 and $50 million.
![BAUER MEDIA GRO Tom Cruise sued Bauer Media for claiming he chose Scientology over his daughter. Bauer Media's In Touch Weekly and Life & Style reported that Cruise abandoned Suri for Scientology, and he sued them for $50 million. They reached a confidential settlement. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/5/902785.jpg)
“I didn’t piss on that mailbox! And if I did, it was after noon!”
![TOUCH WEEKLY Blake Shelton sued In Touch Weekly for calling him a drunk. Their 2015 story Rehab for Blake: Не Finally Hits Rock Bottom contained facts that he drank before noon, his drinking destroyed his marriage, and that he urinated in public. Не won an undisclosed settlement. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/9/0/902790.jpg)
“I didn’t piss on that mailbox! And if I did, it was after noon!”
![Daily Mai BOWLENG The Daily Mail overly spiced up J.K. Rowling's S story. She wrote an article about her time as a single mother, and the Daily Mail claimed that she falsely portrayed her fellow church goers as bigoted to make it more of a sob story. She received substantial damages, and donated the money to charity. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/9/902789.jpg)
What? We didn’t say that YOU had anorexia.
![Daily m The Daily Mail suggested that Keira Knightley caused a teen girl's death. They used her beach photos in an article about a girl who died from anorexia, and suggested that her thinness caused it. She only won $6,500 in court, which donated to an eating disorder charity. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/3/902783.jpg)
They’re literally hurting my image.
![NAL : IQUIRER Kate Hudson sued the National Enquirer for fabricating her eating disorder. In 2006, they edited her picture to make her look sickly thin, and wrote the lie, Goldie Tells Kate: Eat Something! She was awarded an undisclosed sum, and the publisher issued an apology. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/2/902782.jpg)
$50 million can buy a lot of drugs. Joking, Katie.
![Sta Katie Holmes sued Star magazine for calling her a drug addict. She sued for $50 million over the headline, Katie DRUG SHOCKER. The court ordered them to publish an apology, and to make a substantial donation to a charity of Holmes choosing. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/1/902781.jpg)
He was like, “Guys, do you know how hard it already is to convince her I don’t cheat!”
![Sur THE Russell Brand sued The Sun for affair rumors. In 2013, they ran a story that he cheated on his girlfriend at the time, Jemima Khan. Не called the article distressing, hurtful, and damaging, and the court forced them to print an apology and pay a substantial sum. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/0/902780.jpg)
Honey, it’s not what it looks like.
![Sun THE Cameron Diaz sued The Sun for affair rumors. The Sun passed off photos of her and Shane Nickerson as an affair. They filed a $60 million joint lawsuit, claiming that the story caused issues in their relationships. In a settlement, they received substantial damages. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/4/902784.jpg)
Damn those pesky appeals.
![BAUER MEDIA O Rebel Wilson won (then lost) the largest defamation payout in Australian history. She claimed she wasn't getting roles because of Bauer Media articles calling her a constant liar, and was awarded 4.7 million. They then filed an appeal, and the court ordered her to return almost all ofit. She got $600,000 total. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/7/902787.jpg)
Los Angeles itself is one big tabloid.
![le Kobe Bryant's widow sued L.A. County for sharing gruesome helicopter crash pics. In 2022, Vanessa Bryant was awarded $16 million in damages after Sheriff's deputies and firefighters shared graphic pictures of the 2020 helicopter crash scene that killed Kobe, their daughter Gianna, and several others. CRACKED](https://s3.crackedcdn.com/phpimages/imageset/7/8/6/902786.jpg)