Attorneys to 'vigorously dispute' Claims Made by NC Woman

As you may have been alerted to earlier today via Google News, Clay is being sued by Jeannie Holleman, the author Out of the Blue -- 'Clay' it Forward. She claims to be a "lifelong friend and neighbor of a Raleigh family that were friends with Aiken's mother, Faye Parker, and took her in when Parker and her young son left her abusive husband."

According to this morning's Associated Press article, "Holleman claims Aiken, his mother and others conspired to defame her and depress sales of her book by denying they knew her, branding her stories as lies and demeaning the book on Aiken fans' Web sites."

Take a look at this woman's requests: "The lawsuit seeks at least $260,000 in damages and asks the court to order Aiken to retract the critical comments or endorse the book on his official Web site, to write a positive introduction for the book and to sell the book at his concerts for at least five years." Doesn't that just spell out: opportunist? Laughable.

Seems like this has already backfired. Here's a sampling of what the non-Clay bloggers are saying:

• fruit and water: "Great strategy! Why stop at asking for money when you could also MAKE him like your book?"
• Seriously? OMG! WTF?: "What a psycho? I mean you write an unautorized book about someone and when they will not endorse you, you sue them. WTF? And what about following him to Hawaii. She needs a restraining order and not an edorsement."
• waywardbound: "This woman needs to get her own frikking life. And her lawyers should be ashamed of themselves for taking this case. It is cases like this that give their profession a bad rep. I don't really understand how it could be illegal to state a personal opinion."

Clay seems very fed up with all the false accusations he has been faced with. He released this statement today through RCA:

As a so-called 'celebrity' I have become used to scurrilous allegations and untruths being made about me and my work. I have always taken the path of not reacting to these matters and have accepted them as, somehow, coming with the 'job.' However, I cannot, and will not, stand by when these attacks are made on my family. I have instructed my attorneys to not only vigorously dispute the claims that have been made but to also pursue all possible remedies against those involved in the perpetration of these untruths.

Woohoo! Go Clay Go!

Note: CDD debated the posting of this article on our site. We initially decided to ban the article from CDD altogether. However, since Clay has made a statement, we are posting this story once and only once.

Related link: Blog about this from There Was A Man.

Technorati tags: Clay Aiken, A Thousand Different Ways, American Idol, Invisible