Lindsay Lohan Sues Fox News and Sean Hannity (Updated)
/Troubled actress Lindsay Lohan and her mother are suing Fox News, TV host Sean Hannity and commentator Michelle Fields for defamation after Fields said on Hannity's show that Dina Lohan "is doing cocaine" with her famous dysfunctional daughter.
The comment was made February 4, 2014, two days after Philip Seymour Hoffman died in Manhattan of a heroin overdose.
The NY Daily News reports that Hannity and his guests were discussing other celebrities who had died of ODs, including Heath Ledger, Anna Nicole Smith, Whitney Houston, Amy Winehouse, Michael Jackson and Elvis.
The Lohans came up in a discussion of "Early Train Wrecks and Tragedy About to Happen."
According to papers filed Monday in Manhattan Supreme Court, Fields "falsely, inappropriately and shockingly stated, unequivocally and as a 'matter of fact' that ‘Lindsay Lohan's mother is doing cocaine with her.’"
"...Fields made the false, defamatory, heartless, derogatory comment in the context of the show's topic... (It) was a direct smear on the character/reputation of (the Lohans) ... (and it) was a totally irresponsible and malicious innuendo ... (that) Lindsay Lohan might become the next celebrity to join the obituary list," the papers say.
The comment came 18 months after Lohan's father released a secretly recorded tape in October 2012 of his sobbing daughter describing how her mother seems out of control and on drugs, specifically cocaine.
Dina Lohan quickly denied her daughter's allegation. She said the actress who has been arrested multiple times and has gone into rehab at least six times was "just trying to hurt me" when she blurted out, "Dad, Mom's on cocaine!"
LiLo later said she’d lied about her mom doing coke.
Lohan's lawyers, David Hernandez and Mark Heller, said Fox added insult to injury by posting the segment on its website. When the Lohans objected through their attorneys, a lawyer for Fox promised to take it down — but that never happened, the suit says.
The link for the clip mentioned in the lawsuit was not working Monday afternoon.
The daughter and mom are demanding that the segment be taken off Hannity's website permanently and are seeking unspecified punitive damages.
A Fox rep said they had not yet been served with the suit and could not comment.
Update: A Fox News Spokesperson sent along this comment about the lawsuit,"We will defend this case to the fullest. The remark about which Lindsay and Dina Lohan complain was made on live television by a guest nearly a year ago. We removed the segment from our archives altogether last February and also apologized on-air. At that time, the Lohans did not make any demands for money, and we are surprised they are doing so now."