'The Voice' Judge and famous country singer, Blake Shelton, may receive a go signal towards suing tabloid In Touch for previously posting a headline story for their October 2015 issue alleging that Shelton was headed to rehab.
The Associated Press recently revealed that the Judge behind the existing lawsuit filed by the "Boys 'Round Here" singer against Bauer Publishing Co. LLP, the publishing company behind In Touch magazine, could proceed with the permission of U.S. District Judge Christina Snyder.
Snyder was said to have given a tentative approval last Monday in Los Angeles, revealing that the facts to back the claim that Shelton was under rehab was "cherry-picked," as per the Associated Press.
As the news was received by the other side of the party, Bauer Publishing said that they will counter and file an appeal when the time comes that the Defamation complaint against them by the 39-year-old singer gets an approval, the publication further reports.
Meanwhile, Shelton's legal team, headed by his attorney on record, Stanton "Larry" Stein, said that the claims made against his client was absolutely false. "This is a man who functions professionally," Stein said, insisting that the story is "absolutely 100 percent false."
The lawsuit reportedly contains the fact that not only is Shelton not going to any rehabilitation facility, In Touch never tried to contact Shelton to confirm the facts, Patch reports. "Instead, In Touch went straight to publication with a false and salacious cover it knew would hook readers who seem to have an endless appetite for intimate details of celebrities supposedly in crisis," the suit states, as per the publication.
Furthermore, the headline, which states that "Blake's drinking and womanizing are what helped torpedo his four-year marriage" to estranged wife Miranda Lambert and that "Blake has hit rock bottom," as per the news agency, became a negative brand for his professional career as well.
This is so because according to the Associated Press, Shelton was to announce his Nickelodeon's Kid's Choice Awards hosting when the story came out. "I felt that the rehab story jeopardized both my personal and professional reputation and that I needed to do everything I could to set the record straight," Shelton wrote in a statement obtained by the publication.
As of current, there are no official word yet coming from the U.S. District Judge for the final decision of whether to allow Shelton's legal team to sue Bauer Publishing.
