Actor loses libel suit

Press, 26 July 1989, Page 15

Actor loses libel suit

NZPA-AP San Francisco A federal appeals court has refused to reinstate a libel suit by “Miami Vice” star Philip Michael Thomas against the “National Enquirer” for articles about his upbringing and his family. The ninth United States Circuit Court of Appeals has upheld at district court ruling in the tabloid’s favour. The “National Enquirer” printed an article in December, 1985, describing the 1980 rape conviction of his brother, Marcus Thomas, and the family’s role in his appeal. The second article, published in the tabloid a month later, said Philip Michael Thomas had grown up in poverty and was a “mama’s boy.” . The suit said the first article invaded the family’s privacy and the second was also libellous. United States district judge William Orrick of San Francisco ruled two years ago that the suit

over the first article was filed too late, and that the second article was not libellous. The appeals court said the statements in the second article were “substantially true” or, if untrue, did not defame the family.

Thomas played detective Rico Tubbs on the television series.