During their coverage of the NHL trade deadline on Monday, Canadian sports network TSN was featuring a running stream of viewer tweets that took an ugly turn early in the day.
And now they have a legal fight on their hands because of it.
Toronto Maple Leafs teammates Joffrey Lupul and Dion Phaneuf, as well as Phaneuf's wife, actress Elisha Cuthbert, have hired a legal team and are seeking an apology from the network as well as damages after TSN allowed an inappropriate tweet to appear on the broadcast that suggested there was some sort of affair between Lupul and Cuthbert.
On Tuesday, the Vancouver based law firm of Gall Legge Grant & Munroe issued the following statement on behalf of Lupul, Phaneuf and Cuthbert.
"On behalf of our clients Dion Phaneuf, his wife Elisha Cuthbert and Joffrey Lupul, we have sent a letter to TSN demanding that TSN issue a formal apology and pay a significant amount of damages to each of our clients for broadcasting a false and defamatory tweet during their trade deadline show yesterday. We are sending a similar letter to the author of the tweet, Mr. Anthony Adragna.
"It is bad enough that there are people who spend their time using social media to publish such false and malicious stories, but it is made much worse when a reputable media outlet like TSN gives broad circulation and credibility to these false stories by republishing them as TSN did.
"If TSN and Mr. Adragna do not immediately comply with the demands set out in our letters, we have instructions from our clients to immediately commence a lawsuit against them.
"Our clients will not be discussing this matter with the media. Any questions should be directed to the undersigned."
Lupul wasted little time in voicing his displeasure on Monday.
TSN just a poor mans TMZ. Embarrassing.
— Joffrey Lupul (@JLupul) March 2, 2015
He followed that up on Tuesday with this.
Get familiar with #nocomment
— Joffrey Lupul (@JLupul) March 3, 2015
Update: On Tuesday night TSN aired the following apology.
