LOS ANGELES (CNS) – A judge says she is inclined to deny Danny Elfman’s motion to dismiss a pianist’s defamation lawsuit against the “Beetlejuice” composer, in which the plaintiff disputes Elfman’s arguments that her case infringes on his First Amendment rights.
Nomi Abadi’s Los Angeles Superior Court complaint against Elfman pertains to remarks he made during a July 2023 Rolling Stone interview. Elfman’s denials of Abadi’s allegations of repeated sexual harassment and misconduct were included in an investigative piece about a settlement he made with his former mentee.
In a tentative ruling issued Thursday in advance of Friday’s hearing on Elfman’s dismissal motion, Judge Gail Killefer says she is leaning toward denying Elfman’s anti-SLAPP motion, which cites the litigation privilege. The state’s anti-SLAPP — Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
“By authorizing Rolling Stone to publish statements attributed to Elfman … (he) sought to shield his actions from liability by hiding behind the litigation privilege,” the judge wrote, adding that she was finding that the litigation privilege does not apply to the statements published in the article.
Elfman is represented by attorney Camille M. Vasquez, who was Johnny Depp’s lawyer in his dueling litigation with former spouse Amber Heard.
“The motion should be granted and this harassing and outrageous complaint dismissed,” Vasquez argued in her court papers in favor of the anti- SLAPP motion.
But in court papers previously filed, Abadi states in a sworn declaration that her claims are well-founded.
“My five years of hard work building a career in film composing has been destroyed as a result of Mr. Elfman’s blatantly false statements about me in the Rolling Stone article,” Abadi says. “His actions have forced me to abandon my dreams of film scoring to pursue other opportunities.”
Abadi, who contends Elfman had a fetish about nudity that included driving without clothing, says she suffers from severe emotional distress.
“I have been diagnosed with anxiety and depression and the humiliation, stress and fear for my personal safety have compounded these feelings, which collectively have had a profoundly negative impact on my personal life,” Abadi further contends.
Abadi’s application to the Association of Women Film Composers mentorship program was denied with no explanation after the publication of the magazine article, according to the plaintiff, who further maintains that exclusion from the program resulted in the loss for her of more composing opportunities.
According to Vasquez’s court papers, the intermittent friendship between Elfman and Abadi ended in political disagreements related to the 2016 presidential elections when Abadi insisted that voter fraud gave Hillary Clinton the Democratic nomination over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
In an attempt at humor, and partly to defuse their disagreement with a joke, Elfman in August 2016 filled a cocktail glass with various cleaning products from his bathroom counter, including the facial cleanser Cetaphil, to mimic a cocktail full of nasal drainage, all intended to be a joke about a cocktail he would like to serve then-President Trump, according to Vasquez’s pleadings.
Once Abadi’s romantic aspirations were dashed, the plaintiff turned on Elfman and made up a story that he had “behaved inappropriately around her,” according to Vasquez’s court papers.
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