Charlie Sheen sues the National Enquirer over Corey Haim molestation story

The Enquirer story said that Sheen’s sexual abuse helped push Haim “down a drug-fueled path to an early grave” and that he also abused other children. In a statement, a spokesperson for American Media said, “We look forward to litigating against Charlie Sheen, and can’t wait to expose his depravities in a court of law.”

As a public figure, Sheen can’t simply argue that the National Enquirer published a false report, but that it did so purposefully “with malice”—meaning it either knew the story wasn’t true or that it didn’t care one way or the other. That’s where the “personal vendetta” argument comes in, since Sheen claims that the National Enquirer just wanted to take a shot at him no matter what. The lawsuit even points out that the only source quoted in the story is someone else who has been accused of molesting Corey Haim, Dominick Brascia, which Sheen’s lawsuit says suggests that the tabloid “acted with a high degree of awareness of probably falsity.”