Kate Hudson Wins Tabloid Battle

Don't say mean things about Kate Hudson. Definitely, don't publish mean, false things about Kate Hudson. The National Enquirer ran a story about Kate Hudson that implied that the Oscar nominee had an eating disorder. The National Enquirer called Kate Hudson "painfully thin" and even said that Goldie Hawn, the mother of Kate Hudson, was urging her to eat something. The headlines screamed "Goldie Tells Kate: Eat Something! And She Listens!" in October 2005. It was all a lie. Kate Hudson sued for libel and won the case this week, with The National Enquirer admitting that the story was a fake and agreeing to pay damages to the actress for all of the distress.

Kate Hudson was quoted by The BBC as saying, "The allegations that I sued over were blatantly false, and I felt I had no choice but to set the record straight by challenging them in court. I could not stand by while such lies were being perpetrated about me."

Kate Hudson's U.K. attorney, where the suit was filed, was quoted by E Online as saying "Ms. Hawn has explained to me that she has never had any concerns about her daughter's appearance whatsoever and that she has always appeared to be very healthy and happy."

E Online reported on why the case was filed in the U.K., "Hudson is just one of a growing number of celebrities who are pursuing libel cases against U.K. publications with increasing frequency and success because of the fact that British and Irish libel laws are far more sympathetic to the plaintiff than U.S. laws. While U.S. libel laws call for the plaintiff to prove that a publication ran a false story both knowingly and maliciously, U.K. libel laws place the burden of proof on the publication that ran the material." The list of celebrities who have used the U.K. libel laws to their advantage include Britney Spears, Teri Hatcher, Cameron Diaz, Justin Timberlake, and Kate Moss.

The 27 year-old Kate Hudson can currently be seen in You, Me, and Dupree co-starring Owen Wilson and Matt Dillon. Kate Hudson broke through with 2000's Almost Famous, for which she was Oscar-nominated. Since then, she has appeared in How to Lose a Guy in Ten Days, Alex & Emma, Raising Helen, The Skeleton Key, and now You, Me, and Dupree. According to IMDB, Kate Hudson is in pre-production on Bruce Beresford's A Dream of Red Mansions with Ken Watanabe, which will start filming this fall and has been in talks to star in Sleight of Mind next year.

[Additional Sources: The BBC, E Online, IMDB]