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Li'l Cody Makes Nice with Tabloid
Kathie Lee's favorite talking point and his famed mom and pop have reached a settlement over a since-apologized-for supermarket tab story that accused the tow-headed tyke of being--gasp!--"a spoiled brat" who turned on the waterworks when his local Sam Goody ran out of Britney Spears CDs (among other alleged bratty transgressions).
The confidential out-of-court deal with the National Examiner went down three months ago, an attorney for the Giffords revealed Tuesday, per the Associated Press. The family's lawsuit, which sought unspecified multimillions, was formally dismissed last week. A spokesman for the tab's owners said it was "satisfied with the amicable resolution."
Thus concludes 12-year-old Cody Gifford's first true test as a quasi-celebrity: The tabloid war.
It was, after all, Cody's name--not Kathie Lee's or Frank's--that appeared on the complaint against the corporate powers-that-be behind the National Examiner.
When the suit was filed in April 2000, Cody was all of 10. Nonetheless, Gifford lawyer Barry Langberg said at the time that it was the young Gifster who greenlighted the case. "I think that after talking with his parents," Langberg said, "he decided it was the right thing to do."
The wrong thing to do, according to Cody, was for the Examiner to publish an article entitled "Kathie Lee Is Wrecking Cody's Life! Pushy Mom's Creating a Monster."
The article's juiciest stuff said that Cody made like John Belushi's Bluto at a restaurant, spewing out a mouthful of squid, made like Picasso on a pair of pants at a clothing store, drawing all over them, and made like a crybaby during the aforementioned Sam Goody incident.
If that wasn't bad enough, the Examiner also alleged that dear Cody was "no picnic" to work with on the set of his one and only TV-movie (so far), 2000's Model Behavior (costarring Kathie Lee, natch).
No picnic...?! No picnic...?! Them were fighting words for the Giffords, no strangers to the tabloid wars (see: Frank does the flight attendant). Their lawsuit argued that the Examiner defamed li'l Cody, depicting him as an "unruly child who is unable to behave in a socially acceptable manner."
Later, in court, attorneys for the Giffords went on to say that not one of the three out-of-control Cody incidents described in the article happened. (Presumably, they also protested the "no picnic" jab.)
Even as the Examiner argued that its article merely recounted "typical childish behavior" (which, from its point of view, wouldn't qualify as defamation), it published a so-sorry note in its pages last August: "We regret any distress or embarrassment that Cody may have experienced."
No word on Cody's reaction to the apology or settlement. Of course, ever since Live with Regis & Kathie Lee became Live with Regis & Kelly, we don't know how Cody reacts to lots of things.
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