The Boston Globe reports that the Northhampton family depicted in Augusten Burroughs' bestselling memoir RUNNING WITH SCISSORS - which has just been made into a movie - has reached a settlement with Sony Pictures, averting a second lawsuit over the upcoming movie based on the book, the family's lawyer announced yesterday.

Six members of the Turcotte family, survivors of psychiatrist Rodolph H. Turcotte, who died in 2000, last year Burroughs (formerly Christopher Robison) for defamation, invasion of privacy, fraud, and emotional distress. That suit (which also names Burroughs' publisher, St. Martin's Press) is still ongoing, but the suit has been stayed by the court, at the request of both sides, until the release of the film, scheduled for Oct. 27.

Howard Cooper, the Boston lawyer representing the Turcotte family, declined to describe details of the settlement with Sony yesterday. However, in August 2005, he said it was primarily the feared impact of the movie that provoked the suit. "With the forthcoming movie," he said, "the family is living in fear that there will be utter devastation to their reputations, and the invasion of their privacy will be complete."