Judge Dismisses Defamation Lawsuit Against TheWrap

Complaint tossed after movie financier Elisabeth Thieriot repeatedly fails to appear at court dates

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A lawsuit filed by movie financier Elisabeth Thieriot against TheWrap has been dismissed by a judge, after Thieriot failed to appear for the last three hearings in the case, according to court papers obtained by TheWrap.

The suit revolved around a May 9, 2012, article detailing “Revelations of the Mayans 2012 and Beyond” producer Raul Julia-Levy’s claims that Thieriot had fled Mexico, where the documentary was being produced, with two dozen hard drives and 10 computer towers containing the film’s footage.

A Los Angeles judge threw out the lawsuit in September 2012, finding that the article was both accurate and “took pains” in reporting the dispute between Julia-Levy and Thieriot, a San Francisco-based philanthropist and author.

However, that decision was vacated by an appeals court that said TheWrap shouldn’t receive the same press liability protections as newspapers because a 1931 law defined a newspaper as “a publication that was printed on inexpensive paper, often daily.”

In addition to Friday’s win, the lawsuit sparked a change to California law, approved by Governor Jerry Brown in September, which expands protections to “weekly and online publications performing the same news-disseminating function as a daily newspaper.”

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