Simorangkir

INTRODUCTION

This is the second action between these parties related to allegedly defamatory statements which Courtney Love Cobain (defendant) made concerning Dawn Simorangkir (plaintiff). The first action between the parties was resolved by a settlement in which defendant paid plaintiff $430,000. In this litigation, plaintiff sues for statements made by defendant in public media two years later. Determining that the dispute between these parties is not “an issue of public interest” as that term is defined by Code of Civil Procedure1 sections 425.16, subdivisions (e)(3) and (4), we affirm the trial court’s denial of defendant’s motion to dismiss the first amended complaint.

PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Plaintiff filed this action on September 17, 2013, and her First Amended Complaint for Defamation on December 16 of that year. Plaintiff there alleges that she is an “up and coming fashion designer [who] was previously the victim of [defendant’s] vicious, repulsive and conspicuously defamatory rants in multiple public forums . . . where [plaintiff] conducted business, and [that defendant also published these defamatory rants] to [plaintiff’s] clients and others in the fashion industry.”…