Barr Sues 2 Tabloids for Printing Her Love Letters

Television comedian Roseanne Barr and her husband, Tom Arnold, filed a multimillion-dollar lawsuit Thursday alleging that two national tabloids stole four love letters she had written to him and published them earlier this year.

The suit, in addition to alleging invasion of privacy, took the unusual approach of invoking the RICO federal racketeering statute against the National Enquirer and the Star. The U.S. District Court lawsuit said the supermarket weeklies engaged in a pattern of racketeering and civil rights violations by publishing the love letters.

The lawsuit did not say how Barr and Arnold believe the “intensely personal letters” were pilfered, noting only that they were kept “in a private, and presumably secure place.”

But it attacked the publication of the letters as “despicable, extreme and outrageous” and criticized the tabloids for using an “informant enterprise” to gather juicy tidbits on celebrities through paid informants.

Star officials could not be reached for comment. The editor of the National Enquirer discounted the $110-million suit as “ridiculous.”

In an interview, Enquirer Editor and President Iain Calder declined to say where the tabloid got the letters, published in February, but he said: “This is just another pathetic publicity stunt by Roseanne. She is trashing the National Enquirer, but we are in good company.”

The legal action is only the latest salvo in Barr’s running battle with the tabloids, which she says have harassed her on her rise to stardom by running stories of drug addiction and family fights, by following her and by paying informants for information about her.

Barr’s husband was once one of those informants, according to the Enquirer. The reports later were acknowledged by Barr herself, who called it “a huge mistake” and said Arnold apparently wanted to raise money for their honeymoon.

Barr and Arnold were in the studio of her weekly ABC-TV sitcom “Roseanne” on Thursday and did not want to talk about the lawsuit, according to an assistant who did not want to be identified. “They’re laying low,” the assistant said.

Likewise, Barr’s attorney declined to discuss the suit, which in addition to damages seeks a court order to prohibit the tabloids from using the letters again and to force their return.

The Enquirer ran excerpts from the letters under the headline “Roseanne’s Own Words of Love--Excerpts From Letter to Fiance.”

Gavin de Becker, who has tangled with the tabloids often in his role as private consultant to media stars, said Barr’s suit “will be a far more challenging courtroom battle than most that (the tabloids) face.”

“What makes this significant is that it is not a libel suit, so it’s out of the domain of the Enquirer’s speciality--which is resisting libel suits,” he said. “I think they have a very difficult time ahead of them because this lawsuit alleges criminal conduct that is clearly not protected by the First Amendment.”