Michael Rapaport’s Defamation Suit Against Barstool Sports Tossed By Judge

Looks like Michael Rapaport took an L this week. The same week he revealed he and Kevin Durant were in serious beef in the DM’s. What a week. The actor’s defamation case against Barstool Sports was tossed down on Monday. However his breach of contract suit is still ongoing. The defamation suit was all about a T-Shirt, which depicted Rapaport as a clown with a red mark on his chin. Rappaport believed people would think he had herpes as a result of the t-shirt.

Via NY Post:

“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,” Buchwald’s ruling read.

The breach of contract suit, filed against Barstool Sports Inc., Portnoy and site personalities Adam Smith, Kevin Clancy and Eric Nathan in September 2018, will continue to trial.

“Whether the evidence demonstrates that Rapaport’s tweet actually brought Barstool into public disrepute and thus permitted Barstool to immediately terminate the Talent Agreement is a disputed issue of material fact that must be resolved by a jury following trial,” Buchwald wrote.

Rapaport’s ongoing claim against Barstool Sports alleges his contract entitled him to $200,000 for his rant videos and $400,000 for a podcast, in addition to the company making “good faith efforts” to get him a weekly show that would have netted him $375,000.

Portnoy referenced the W earlier in the week.

In honor of Rappaport getting his ass kicked in court here is the time I put his lawyers in a mental torture chamber pic.twitter.com/GT8clSz2B3

— Dave Portnoy (@stoolpresidente) March 30, 2021

Bad press is good press, so it’s not all bad for Rappaport. Although there’s definitely nothing good about that clown shirt.

https://twitter.com/kyle_warwick/status/1376943938951602177

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