Entertainment | Celebrity

Grease on Travolta

A man has accused the actor and his attorney of spreading false statements about his mental health in 2010 to dissuade readers from buying his book, which allegedly contains references to his homosexual encounters with the actor

Reuters
Published: 00:00 June 23, 2012

Image Credit: PictureGroup / Rex Features
Travolta has been married to Kelly Preston since 1991

A Los Angeles man who wrote a book about his alleged homosexual encounters with John Travolta filed a libel lawsuit on Thursday against the actor and his attorney.

Robert Randolph claimed that Travolta and his attorney Martin Singer spread false statements about his mental health in 2010 in a bid to dissuade the public from buying his planned book. His is seeking unspecified damages in the legal action filed in Los Angeles Superior Court.

Singer called Randolph’s lawsuit “absurd”, saying it was based on a private letter to the publisher of a gossip blog and “was completely privileged under the law”.

“We intend to sue the attorneys for malicious prosecution after the court promptly dismisses this baseless lawsuit,” Singer said in a statement.

Randolph’s book, You’ll Never Spa in This Town Again, was finally published in February, three months before two unidentified male masseurs filed sexual assault lawsuits against Travolta, the star of Grease and Saturday Night Fever.

Travolta’s spokesperson called those accusations “complete fiction” and both accusers swiftly dropped their lawsuits in May after doubt was cast on the details of their alleged encounters.

Travolta, 58, has been married to actress Kelly Preston since 1991.

— Reuters