April 3, 2002
SECTION: A SECTION, Pg. 11A
HEADLINE: TABLOID, GIFFORD SETTLE SUIT OVER STORY
BYLINE: Kathryn Quigley, Palm Beach Post Staff Writer
WEST PALM BEACH - The National Examiner takes it back. Kathie Lee Gifford isn't turning her son Cody into a monster after all.
A defamation lawsuit filed by the actress-singer against the tabloid has been settled and the tabloid printed a retraction of its original story, which painted Cody Gifford as a brat and Kathie Lee Gifford as a pushy mother.
Court records show that the defamation lawsuit was officially dismissed last week.
"We managed to work it out," said attorney Deborah Drooz, who is representing the Giffords.
She said the terms of the settlement were confidential.
Well, is Kathie Lee Gifford happy about the settlement?
Drooz declined to comment even on that. The terms of the settlement were so specific that "nobody can speak of emotions" of the parties involved, she said.
The National Examiner, published by American Media Inc. of Boca Raton, printed a story about Cody Gifford in a February 2000 article headlined "Kathie Lee is Wrecking Cody's Life! Pushy Mom's Creating a Monster." The article detailed how the 10-year-old Cody whined and cried when his nanny told him he couldn't get the new Britney Spears album because it was sold out. He also wrote on his pants, refused to eat ravioli and generally acted like a brat, according to the article.
Never mind.
The retraction reads in part: "Cody and his family have assured us that these events described in the article did not take place. Our investigations have revealed that their assurances are accurate and that we were in error."
Gerald McKelvey, a spokesman for American Media, said the National Examiner printed the retraction last summer.
Gifford, wife of football Hall of Famer Frank Gifford, is best known as the former co-host of a morning television show with Regis Philbin. Her latest theatrical foray was in a production of the thriller Thumbs last month in Nyack, N.Y. She played a television celebrity.