Peggy Sued: Kathleen Turner Admits Falsehoods About Nicolas Cage in Memoir
Actress Kathleen Turner officially joins the ranks of Margaret Seltzer and James Frey today, having admitted through a lawyer that certain parts of her recent memoir are untrue. In the book, published stateside in February as Send Yourself Roses by an imprint of Hachette Book Group USA, Ms. Turner wrote that during the filming of the 1986 film Peggy Sue Got Married, Mr. Cage was "arrested twice for drunk-driving and, I think, for stealing a dog. He'd come across a Chihuahua he liked and stuck it in his jacket." The line also appeared as part of an excerpt published in UK paper The Daily Mail under the headline, "Why I detest Burt Reynolds and Nicolas Cage."
Incensed by the allegations, Mr. Cage filed a libel suit against Ms. Turner, her UK publisher, and The Daily Mail; Reuters reports that the suit was settled today in a London court:
Cage's lawyer Simon Smith dismissed as "utter falsity" a section of Turner's book "Send Yourself Roses," describing the actors' experience working together on the set of the movie "Peggy Sue Got Married" in 1986.
[...]
Turner, Headline Publishing Group and Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers now accept that, owing to a mistake on Turner's part and despite the other defendants' publishing in good faith, the allegations were defamatory and false, Smith said.
All three agreed to pay Cage's legal costs and make a donation to a charity chosen by him that helps the victims of elder abuse, Smith said.
And yet, somehow Kathleen Turner comes off more likable for having totally made up crap about Nicholas Cage. A law unto herself, that woman.
Despite Mr. Cage's horrendous performance in the otherwise wonderful PEGGY SUE GOT MARRIED, the movie was saved for me (and remains one of my favorite films) by Ms. Turner's luminous, Oscar-deserving portrayal of a woman confronting mid-life crisis. Perhaps the particulars of what she re-called about Cage were erroneous, but her distaste for him as both an actor and human being are fully substantiated by friends of mine in the business who've had the displeasure of working with him. In sharp contrast, everyone I know who has worked with Miss Turner have nothing but praise for her professional and personal demeanor. Cage, on the other hand, is the world's most powerful argument against nepotism. Case closed.