Naomi Campbell is taking the Telegraph to court for libel after they published an article accusing her of having elephant polo at a party.
The story titled “Elephant Polo at Campbell’s party criticised,” claimed that the British model had organized an elephant polo tournament in India for her Russian billionaire boyfriend Vladislav Doronin.
The controversial sport is largely considered to be animal cruelty by organizations such as PETA but is actually quite common in India.
The article suggested that Campbell canceled the tournament after receiving such harsh criticisms regarding the sport, but Naomi’s camp says that’s “completely untrue.”
The Daily Telegraph has removed the story from their website and Campbell has already alerted lawyers in London to take action against the publication.
The libel claim has been formally filed against Telegraph Media Group, the published of the Daily Telegraph, at the high court in London earlier this month.
“We have issued legal proceedings on behalf of Ms. Campbell against the Telegraph, who where the original publishers of these allegations,” said Gideon Benaim, a partner of Michael Simkins who will be taking care of the legal proceedings on Naomi’s behalf. “We are instructed to pursue this matter until it is satisfactorily resolved. The allegations cause damage to our client, apart from the widespread repetition of the allegations, there were also protests outside the venue, and Indian government departments who wrote to us.”
Benaim pointed out that he does not blame the government for investigating the matter and writing to the famous beauty industry mogul because they were simply reacting to the false reports that had been published by the defendant.
He also went on to reveal that Naomi’s camp still has no idea how the rumors started, but he is certainly going to do his best to get to the bottom of it.
“We have as yet no idea where the false claims originated from, perhaps the Telegraph will let us know in due course.”
Ever since the Kate Middleton topless scandal, it seems as if many celebs have failed to shy away from taking abuse from the media or even having their privacy invaded.
Although the Duchess may have sparked the trend, however, the Blackberry slinging Brit has always been butting heads with the press and never backed down from a legal battle.
Back in 2001 she began a legal war against the Daily Mirror after they invaded her privacy by publishing photos of her leaving a Narcotics Anonymous meeting. It wasn’t until 2011 that the situation had finally been resolved.
After years of going back and forth, debating whether the press had the right to snap the photos or not Campbell came out on top and the Daily Mirror was faced with a £850,000 or $1,374,280.00 bill to pay.
