Brooke Shields Outraged at Tabloid's Antics

The actress says reporters checked her mother out of a nursing home on Thursday

Brooke Shields is accusing the National Enquirer of some dirty tricks involving her ailing mother.

The actress claims a reporter with the tabloid checked 75-year-old Teri Shields, who suffers from dementia, out of her nursing room on Thursday by posing as a friend.

"I intend to take every lawful action against all who were involved or who authorized this despicable act," Brooke Shields said in a statement to People.

Police were called to the nursing home by its staff to help look for the elder Shields, who had been allowed to leave but was gone for an "extended period of time." They found Teri unharmed chatting with a freelance journalist at a restaurant next door to the New Jersey assisted-living center.

The journalist and a photographer were questioned by police. The incident is still under investigation.

In its defense, the Enquirer insists the reporter was a longtime friend of Teri Shields and was merely honoring a request to take her out for some errands. The tabloid claims Shields' caregivers had given permission for the excursion and "no wrongdoing had been committed."

(Originally published May 16, 2009, at 11:30 a.m. PT.)

____

Follow us on Twitter @eonline and get our free iPhone app