tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-257402619482124628.post7710894389680616215..comments2021-07-19T11:16:18.097+00:00Comments on Things I Learned or Made Up: "I am a Spartacus order." "No, I am a Spartacus order..."DavidChttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11186286696740731085noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-257402619482124628.post-27069281327525198262007-09-28T12:59:00.000+00:002007-09-28T12:59:00.000+00:00Schillings helped open up the libel shopping marke...Schillings helped open up the libel shopping market in 2005 when they managed to get their client, Roman Polanski, permission to testify by video from Paris, in an action against Vanity Fair.<BR/><BR/>Here's the outline:<BR/><BR/>Vanity Fair ran a story almost 30 years old to the effect that Mr Polanski had behaved in an untoward fashion one lunchtime in 1967.<BR/><BR/>The story got up Polanski's nose because the one day he was supposed to have done it he considered he had acted very well. He was on the way to the funeral of his murdered wife, Sharon Tate, and reckoned he had a sound memory of that day. Besides, the woman he was supposed to have spoken to declined to testify at all. <BR/><BR/>So all in all, Vanity Fair couldn't prove its case and should have just apologised and walked away. It was just the word of one hack who seemed to remember being at lunch, but it was also possible he had it confused with an entirely different lunch.<BR/><BR/>Graydon Carter, Vanity Fair's editor, dug in and acted as if he had a story of substance instead of celebrity tittle-tattle which was older than most of the magazine's readers. <BR/><BR/>To this day Carter seems incapable of grasping that Polanski was not querying any criticism of his behaviour in general, which is not exactly shining and everybody knows it. But the allegation was about one day in particular, and that event was the one which Carter could not establish.<BR/><BR/>The legal upshot was that an English court established that someone not British and not in Britain could sue an American magazine in London on the basis that it may have been read by people in the UK. Vanity Fair does have a UK edition - it tweaks the advertizing for the UK market - but its subject matter is US media, entertainment and culture.<BR/><BR/>Polanski got around £175k damages, but the legal bill for both sides ran in to millions.<BR/><BR/>Schillings rubbed their scaley paws together and went looking for egomaniac clients with more money than sense.<BR/><BR/>Whether the Schillings clients honestly think their reputations are restored to pristine condition is anyone's guess. Someone like Hasslehoff has an unrealistic idea of how much esteem and affection they attracted in the first place.<BR/><BR/>Thanks for the link to Richard Brunton. Fascinating.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com