On March 29, Michael Rapaport lost his defamation lawsuit against Barstool Sports. Here’s a look at the drama that unfolded because of a clown shirt picture.
Michael has been vocal about his thoughts on the clown shirt picture ever since it came out in 2018. The actor had filed a defamation case regarding the same. Unfortunately, he did not win the case. Dave Portnoy, who is the founder of Barstool Sports, also shared the news of his victory on Twitter.
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Michael Rapaport and Barstool Sports drama explained
Michael had joined the Barstool Sports team in 2017. Nearly a year after working for the company, Michael was fired in February 2018 by Dave. The company claimed that Dave was fired because of an old tweet he had made regarding the company.
The tweet reportedly targeted the fans of Barstool Sports as Michael wrote that anyone calling themselves “stoolies” has “already lost in life.” Following this, on February 19, 2018, Dave revealed they had developed a clown shirt with Michael’s face on it, and the T-shirts were up for sale.
In the tweet, he wrote: “Finally some Rapaport gear people will buy,” along with the picture of the shirt. Michael slammed the T-shirt as the picture also had a red dot under his lip. The actor claimed the dot created an illusion that he had an STD like herpes.
The actor alleged he had been defamed because he did not have herpes. Following this, he filed a defamation lawsuit. The lawsuit also claimed he was fired unlawfully and that the company was yet to pay him hundreds and thousands of dollars.
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Michael Rapaport clown shirt lawsuit
On March 29, the court announced a judgment. It was revealed that Michael had lost the lawsuit. U.S. Southern District Court Judge Naomi Reice Buchwald said: “While hardly flattering to Rapaport, this image standing alone is not actionable because a reasonable audience would not understand the shirt to be asserting as a fact that Rapaport has herpes.”
Dave also responded to his win in a March 30 tweet. He wrote: “In honor of Rappaport getting his a** kicked in court, here is the time I put his lawyers in a mental torture chamber.” As of now, Michael has not responded to the lawsuit loss.
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