Nobel Peace Prize Winner Sued by Potential Co-Author

Another day, another potentially frivolous lawsuit. Reuters reports that Iran’s 2003 Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights lawyer Shirin Ebadi (left) was sued by a co-author on Thursday for pulling out of an agreement to publish a new book. Ebadi, the first Iranian and first Muslim woman to win the peace prize, had agreed to write A USEFUL ENEMY with political analyst Shahir Shahidsaless, according to the lawsuit.

Shahidsaless sued her for $1.3 million in damages after Ebadi’s literary agent and her publisher, Random House, recommended that she pull out of the deal out of concern that it would damage future sales of her other books, according to the suit filed in federal court in Manhattan. Shahidsaless claims he had wasted 1-1/2 years working on the book because it would not sell without Ebadi’s famed reputation as a lawyer and rights activist, the lawsuit said. My money is not on Shahidsaless in this case, but we’ll see what the judge thinks…

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