Elton John loses libel action

I agree MrJK, a massive sense of humour failure on Elton's part or the fact the satire was actually pretty spot on - lol

I hope it doesn't make him too unhappy, we are going to see him on Thursday

What a stupid thing to get one's knickers in a twist about - and only someone with far too much time and money on his hands would believe they could overcome centuries of satirical tradition.

Thank goodness the law is not (always) an ass in this country!

I can't quite believe that Carter Ruck encouraged him to sue in the first place. They have won some frivolous libel cases in the past but they should surely have seen that there was only ever going to be one outcome in this case. And now they want to be granted leave to appeal? More money down the drain.

The real irony is that Elton John was one of the most successful libel litigants of all time when he took on the Sun in the late 1980s, winning both a million quid and a grovelling front-page apology (SORRY ELTON in giant block capitals).

But in that case he was absolutely right to sue - the Sun basically went completely mental and after printing some stories about dalliances with rent boys that were based on a highly dubious single source, they started making stuff up. It got to the point when every single story they printed about him attracted a libel action, but the seventeenth (!) was the real killer, as it concerned a story that was so clearly and demonstrably untrue (it alleged that Elton's mansion was guarded by "silent assassins" in the form of Rottweillers who'd had their vocal chords removed) that the paper didn't have a leg to stand on. In fact, Elton withdrew the previous sixteen libel suits and focused on that one - knowing full well that the paper couldn't substantiate it.

But this one's weird - even if you didn't know that Marina Hyde writes a similar piss-taking "diary" every week, it's blindingly obvious from the style along that it's just gentle mockery that absolutely comes with the territory of being a celebrity. And Elton John normally seems to have a sense of humour.