The stars are coming out to sue the National Enquirer
Tucked among the usual news of miracle diets and life after death in the Oct. 18, 1977, National Enquirer was an intriguing report from the world of show business: "Ed McMahon abruptly knocked over his chair and bumped into tables at a Rome restaurant as he made a mad scramble for the door. Ready Eddie wanted to introduce himself to a stunning 6-foot 2-inch black model, Ajita Wilson, who was about to leave."
The only trouble, McMahon later insisted, was that he had not been in Rome in four years. He demanded a retraction but instead got sizzled again in a subsequent issue: "Big Ed McMahon is looking younger following a restful vacation in Europe—the Tonight Show announcer secretly treated himself to a facial snip-and-tuck on the trip." Completely false, McMahon complained. After that salvo, he filed a $2.5 million libel suit against the tabloid. Says he: "The suit is really a statement: Enough is enough. How many more lies are they going to print about [entertainers]? Somebody has got to be responsible."
Other show-biz personalities are reaching the same conclusion. Phil Silvers and Paul Lynde sued late last year, and Carol Burnett, Shirley Jones and Rory Calhoun have libel actions pending. For years Hollywood pressagents have played footsie with the Enquirer; some even stooped to passing along dirt about stars. Their aim: favorable publicity for their own clients. Marty Ingels, Jones' husband and co-plaintiff, was a frequent Enquirer source. But now Ingels seems eager to foment an uprising against this tawdry symbiosis: "I want to attract other victims out of the closet."
The flurry of lawsuits comes at a time when the Enquirer is trying to recapture lost gusto. The paper abandoned its notorious I-Ate-My-Baby emphasis on gore and shock years ago, mainly to become salable at food stores and other family shopping haunts (the Enquirer boasts that it is now in every U.S. supermarket). After CBS's 60 Minutes ran a scorching story in 1976 questioning Enquirer reporting methods, the paper set up an elaborate research and fact-checking staff, now numbering 22, at its Lantana, Fla., headquarters. Among its rules: gossip items require two independent sources, and all interviews must be recorded on tape so quotes can be verified.
Meanwhile, the competition was coming on strong: the Star, a tabloid launched in 1974 by Australian Publisher Rupert Murdoch, came up with a smart new design, four-color printing and a $6 million advertising blitz. The Star's circulation rose from 1 million to 3 million while the Enquirer dropped from a peak of 5.9 million in 1978 to 5 million. Enquirer Owner and Publisher Generoso Pope Jr. belatedly introduced color printing last year and reportedly got the word out to staffers to put the old pizazz back into their stories. Recalls a former reporter: "He reminded the editors about the importance of being accurate, but everyone knew he couldn't stand the research department."