Unfortunately for Star magazine, “baby, baby, baby” was simply a piece of dialgue from Walk the Line. In reality, Reese Witherspoon has no such news on a third child.
The Oscar winner filed a lawsuit against the publication Wednesday, arguing that a “phony” June 26 cover story headlined “Reese & Julia—Baby #3”³ was a “callous effort to boost the tabloid’s sagging sales,” according to court documents obtained by E! Online.
Witherspoon is claiming she’s suffered significant distress and damage to her good name because of the story. Star, of course, couldn’t be reached for comment.
The magazine cover in question (picture, right) directed readers to check out the inside pages to “get all the happy details,” regarding Witherspoon’s alleged pregnancy. The cover photo also appeared front and center on Star’s Website.
The unidentified observer also said that Witherspoon was wearing an “old-fashioned 1920s-style bathing suit that covered her tummy” and that the Legally Blonde star was viewed another time coming out of a Santa Monica baby boutique “carrying a bag from the store.”
Yes, folks, an actual bag.
Witherspoon’s complaint, filed in Los Angeles Superior Court, goes on to cite another large picture of her in the June 26 issue featuring a circle drawn around her stomach with the caption: “Reese went shopping in Beverly Hills, June 7, wearing another loose-fitting Empire-waist dress. Hmmm…”
The legal team for Ryan Phillipe’s wife also referred to what they called a “despicable” line from the article, which stated that Witherspoon has two movies coming up and she “just doesn’t want to break the news to producers just yet,” as equally false.
Court documents state that the defamatory cover story portrayed Witherspoon in a “false and offensive light in violation of her right of privacy,” and that her reps had alerted Star before the issue was published that the so-called scoop it was going ahead with was untrue, making the magazine’s cover a misappropriation of her image.
In this case, the trashy magazine may have illegally walked the line of truth. Get it?!?