“This is going to be one of the most expensive lawsuit settlements in book-publishing history.”
These are the words of Larry Birkhead Tuesday. The man who became a household name in one courtroom is heading to yet another one, reports AP, and with this statement is already predicting the outcome of him get a cash settlement over a book release today that has made him furious.
“Larry Birkhead and Howard K. Stern both plan to sue the author of a new book that claims the two men shared a sexual encounter before Anna Nicole Smith’s death and worked together afterward to manipulate the media and maximize profits” reports AP tonight. The book at the center of the fight is “Blonde Ambition: The Untold Story Behind Anna Nicole Smith’s Death” written by awarded journalist and former MSNBC host Rita Cosby.
Birkhead claims he will be suing Crosby the author, Grand Central Publishing (the book’s publisher), and her sources.
Howard K. Stern also planned to “file and aggressively pursue a libel case” against Cosby and her publishers.
And hence starts the war of words Tuesday. Pull up a seat because this one is getting nasty.
“The more information I have received over the last several days about Ms. Cosby’s book, the more convinced I am that she has, as a practical matter, authored a work of pure fiction,” said Howard Stern’s attorney Tuesday.
“It’s totally false and defamatory,” Birkhead said. “This book is fueled by Internet gossip and tabloid reports. She never once tried to contact me or Howard to see if any of these things were true.”
Crosby’s reponse:
“We also knew what Birkhead would say because we’ve seen him inconsistent on many other things …. [book contents were] carefully vetted through attorneys at our publishing house. I have nothing to hide … I make no apologies for the book, and at the end of the day, the American public will see that these two men conspired to fool us all. I knew going into this that this was going to be challenged by them at every turn because they don’t want the truth to come out.”
And the more from Birkhead:
[Crosby's sources] ”all have pending litigation against me so they all have axes to grind…. Rita Cosby uses this week, the week that my daughter turns one and the anniversary of (Smith’s son) Daniel’s death, to try to sell a book or two.”
And finally Crosby once again:
“The real issue here and the reason I did this book was that little baby,” she said. “The question is: What’s ahead for her future if these two men appear to be in collusion? … I hope that my book will expose some of the inconsistencies that have been out there and maybe have these cases given a second look.”
