Clinic to Pay Sinatra $450,000
A Swiss rejuvenation clinic that claimed Frank Sinatra took sheep cell injections to prolong youth was ordered today to pay the singer $450,000 in damages for use of his name in a bogus tabloid story.
U.S. District Judge Manuel L. Real said pretrial depositions established that Sinatra never took sheep cell injections at Clinic La Prairie in Montreux, Switzerland, or at any other rejuvenation clinic. Real awarded Sinatra $350,000 in compensatory damages for unjust enrichment and $100,000 in punitive damages. During the trial, a former reporter for the National Enquirer testified that he had been told by clinic doctors that Sinatra was one of many celebrities treated with the sheep cell injections.
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