Gawker
The Church of Scientology, and Tom Cruise, the organization's most prominent evangelist, are both notoriously litigious. The sect's founder, science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard, wrote in a 1955 magazine article, "The purpose of a lawsuit is to harass and discourage rather than to win." At the peak in the 1990s, according to the St. Petersburg Times, the organization spent $30m in one year on legal action, in part to win tax-exempt status as a religion, but also to parry and tire its many critics. So it's hardly surprising that the Scientologists' lawyers would at least threaten a huge lawsuit against the author of this week's controversial new biography of Tom Cruise, which also exposes many of the sect's most embarrassing secrets. Nor that Gawker Media has received a copyright infringement notice. Below, the request to remove clips posted to Gawker and Defamer as part of our coverage of the Tom Cruise biography; and, after that, Gawker's refusal to comply. (And here's the video the Scientologists want to suppress, of the Hollywood star's wild-eyed claims that Scientologists are "the authorities on the mind and.. the way to happiness".)
Comments
Way to take out your cock and slap it on their desk.
i was way too distracted by the repeated use of the term CSI and the way my brain immediately conjured up the visage of david caruso to actually read either e-mail.
She should Paquette in.
Please don't pull a google and give away commenter's identities in a plea bargain. I beg of you, gov'na.
Hey Gaby Gaby!
Good for you, Denton!!
This is all way to glib for me.
Dear Mr. or Ms Gaby Darbyshire,
We'll just see about that. Bear in mind, we could smite your entire Gawker operation with one well-aimed fart.
Sincerely,
Ava Paquette
She has a good faith belief AND knows it for a fact?
@PeenScene:
Dear Ms. Paquette,
We have received this email from you as a matter of course. We assume that hundreds of other "celebrity gossip" outlets have received a similar form letter.
Thanks for remembering us! We will use this to increase our "little guy vs. the man" cred.
Best,
Gaby Darbyshire
never fuck with a british woman named gaby darbyshire!
i hereby move to have "you got gaby darbyshired" be the new "you got served."
bitches!
Well, it was nice knowing you guys. I'm going to hide out at CuteOverload.com for a few months until this blows over. If anyone needs me, knock three times and ask for "Pooky."
What will be most fascinating will be the letter Katie receives when she and Tom divorce and she writes her tell all book. I don't think I'll buy this one cause I frankly couldn't care less about Tom Cruise, but her book...oh yeah, I'll buy that one.
I bet the Church of Scientology is behind the heinous, untimely closing of Rent on Broadway too.
That's a pretty weak attempt at getting commenter privileges, Ms. Paquette.
I'm having flashbacks to 1996.
Denton, if you're forced to give my IP address to the scary people, please give me notice so I may fetch my Quietus.
Way to get all suppressive on their asses!
Which cult are we taking down next? Christianity? The Vanessa Hudgens fan club?
@Clarence Rosario: Haa.
Where's the 'All best'?
This is like getting a visit from Tom Hagen, right?
@PeenScene: 'smite your entire Gawker operation with one well-aimed fart' is one of the best things I have read all day.
Oh and Gawker, bravo for not caving into these crazy fuckwads.
haha.... CSI....
Anyone here goin' to Sundance and want to bunk?
Isn't that the same exact series of events from the movie The Insider starring Russell Crowe. Now does Gawker have an attorney that looks like Gina Gershon. I never though I would have to compare gawker to 60 Minutes. So who's your Mike Wallace then?
It's still not Rupee.
Am I the only one who got Nigerian-banker echoes from this? "DEAR SIR/MADAME WE WISH TO INFORM YOU THAT I AM IN POSSESSION OF SEVERAL MILLIONS COPYWRITES DUE TO 18USC.. PLEASE TO DEPOSIT $ONE HUNDREDS THOUSAND AND REMOVEING COPYWRITES." Can't Xenu afford a literate law firm?
I'm still waiting for the cease and desist letter from Fred Durst and Co.
@lolcait: Don't rideshare with Gaby the rest of the week.
@princeCapsaicin: I'm currently posting from an undisclosed location.
No, Mom, I'm working... I don't wanna go back to New York, I -
Oh. Shit.
@onandon:
She won't write a book. She'll do what Nicole Kidman did when she got divorced from Cruise: sign a confidentiality agreement in the face of the threat of never being able to see her children again.
Oh, see, this is very fun!
Everybody wave bye bye to Gaby! The next time we see her she'll be wandering naked along an interstate just outside Tampa.
@onandon: You know what a (love) letter is? it's a bullet from a fucking gun, fucker.
Good luck, Gaby. They do not play nice.
Try pissing all over the Zoroastrians. They're not nearly as litigious.
um, be wary of taking on Cruise in a courtroom - he'll be all up in his f*ggoty white dress uniform, getting you to admit to ordering Code Reds before you know it.
My life is pretty boring these days. It might be kinda fun to have a Scientologist trailing me, asking me how many babies I've raped*, and trying to pry my Prozac outta my hand.
*The answer is: none.
@Hythloday: No. I got a letter from Nigeria, too. But it had nothing to do with copyrights~
Anyway, Sundance--you going?
How 'bout we go to my place and I Gaby the Darbyshire out of you?
Oh Ava, what kind of lawyer declares something under penalty of perjury in a freaking demand letter - so gauche and grandiose.
So that's what "CSI" stands for. Damn, I was way off.
@lolcait: "My name is Ava and I like to DANCE!"
@HeatherNumber1:
No, they don't play nice and the lawyers are Scientologists, too.
As I said earlier, this will be a fascinating legal battle. Good luck, Gaby - I would love to work with such an interesting legal issue.
'Scooz me, ain't no lawyer or anything, but doesn;t the Paquette-shit letter acknowledge in print and once and for all that the loony Cruise tape is an official publication, one that they will go to court to defend? Did we know that? And isn't that valuable information?
Heh-heh, you said "penal code."
Gawker had the crazytape a whole day before TMZ picked it up. Let's see how long TMZ keeps it up...they be members of CSI too?....or lawsuit pusses...
Best buzzfeed.com topic ever..."nick denton's balls"
[www.buzzfeed.com]
Anyone heard anything about the "raped baby" guy? Is he still alive?
If Gawker's mission is now to "serve the public interest," this is the first I've heard of it. Gaby, were you able to type that with a straight face? Name one thing Gawker has ever done that has served the public interest.
Besides the Viacom freelancer campaign. That was pretty cool.
Denton, FTW!
I don't know why people are so scared of Denton having to give up our IP addresses. Actually, I think it would be great fun if they decided to round up all the Gawker commenters and put them in a courtroom together against the church of scientology.
Strange to me that this "Church" has no tangible tenets of forgiveness and seemingly only believes in litigious redemption (I guess that's why Germany considers it a cult). Heh. If only the Thetans had lawyers, damn Xenu would never have gotten away with the thermonuclear volcano holocaust. Bummer, dudes. More Kool-Aid.
@The Dewd: Yes! We'll show those fuckers what a cult is. And also what substance abuse is.