A lawsuit filed by a photographer who sued Hilary Duff for libel and slander before dying in 2023 has been dropped by the late plaintiff’s attorney.
Darryl Wilkins had alleged in his Los Angeles Superior Court lawsuit that the actress made derogatory statements about him after he photographed her son and other children at a park in 2020.
Wilkins maintained he encountered the “Cheaper by the Dozen” star in a public park on Feb. 22, 2020. He contended Duff asked him not to photograph young children, including her then-7-year-old son, as they played soccer and that Duff called him, among other pejorative terms, a “child predator.”
On Tuesday, Wilkins’ attorney, Fred Hanassab, filed court papers with Judge Upinder S. Kalra asking that the case filed in February 2021 be dismissed. Hanassab previously told the judge in a sworn declaration that he had lost contact with his client before finding a media report stating that Wiilkins, 67, died “in a vehicle” last May 19 and that the official cause of death was atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease.
Duff, 36, recorded the encounter with Wilkins on her cellphone and posted the video to her Instagram page, where it became publicly disseminated and reported in the celebrity news media, with a portion being played during the “Hot Topics” segment of an episode of “The Wendy Williams Show” discussing celebrity news.
“Such purported comments by Duff, including plaintiff allegedly being a child predator, were made in a place open to the public or a public forum … open to the use of the general public for purposes of assembly, communicating thoughts between citizens and discussing public questions) in connection with an issue of public interest,” according to an anti-SLAPP motion filed by the actress’ attorneys that also was set for hearing and later cancelled.
The state’s anti-SLAPP — Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation — law is intended to prevent people from using courts, and potential threats of a lawsuit, to intimidate those who are exercising their First Amendment rights.
“By allegedly calling plaintiff a child predator both in the public park … and thereafter on social media and in television appearances, Duff participated in, and furthered, the discourse about child predators approaching minor children in public, and the issues surrounding the increased aggressiveness of paparazzi and they relate to celebrities, including their children,” the motion stated.
Moreover, Duff’s alleged remarks about Wilkins were “nothing more than her opinion of what plaintiff was doing when he was taking photographs of Duff’s children” and expressions of opinion are not defamatory, according to the motion.