Attention Twitter trolls: Be careful what you tweet or you may see yourself slapped with a $10 million lawsuit. Movie stars don’t mess around when it comes to suing and they have the money to do it.
Even if you were just horsing around.
Actor James Woods, 68, who insinuated that President Obama is really a Muslim, is so incensed by a Twitter troll who claimed he uses cocaine that he’s taking him to court. “In fact, Woods is not now, nor has he ever been, a cocaine addict,” the complaint, drafted by attorney Michael Weinstein, states.
The defendant in question is “Abe List” (@abelisted), whose account has since been removed by Twitter.
The news was first reported by The Hollywood Reporter.
The court doc says the troll has “now jeopardized Woods’ good name and reputation on an international scale.” Further, it states that the troll has engaged in name-calling — because when does name-calling ever happen on Twitter?
“In the past, AL has referred to Woods with such derogatory terms as “prick,” “joke,” “ridiculous,” “scum” and “clown-boy.”
Woods claims in the complaint that he’s “embarrassed and distressed” that family and potential employers might believe the words of undisclosed Twitter troll.
The poor actor has “suffered shame, mortification, hurt feelings, emotional distress, embarrassment, humiliation and injury to his peace of mind (although not severe, disabling distress).”
In other words, not the kind of distress that might have a person locked up in a nut house and be unable to spend that $10 million bucks.
Some might say Abe’s tweet was provoked by what Woods wrote.
The cocaine crack came after Business Insider‘s Hunter Walker stepped in to question Woods’ anti-Obama political commentary.
On July 15, 2015, “Abe List” also wrote, “@RealJamesWoods @benshapiro cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting.”
The A.V. Club, which also reported the news, quipped that the case could have a huge affect on the way people behave on Twitter.
“A ruling in favor of Woods could have a chilling effect on libelous insults made on social media It would also net Woods enough money to score a considerable amount of uncut cocaine, if he were inclined to do that. Which of course, he wouldn’t.”
Sift through the actual lawsuit here.