Karma Has Come For James Woods In The Form Of A Twitter Lawsuit

By Victoria McNally | Twitter | March 16, 2017 |

By Victoria McNally | Twitter | March 16, 2017 |

Payback hurts, doesn’t it, James Woods?

An Ohio woman whom Woods misidentified as a Nazi-saluting Trump supporter on Twitter is now suing the actor for defamation and false light invasion of privacy, citing death threats she’s received in light of Woods’ actions. She’s seeking $3 million dollars in damages, which is a drop in the bucket when you consider that Woods himself once sued someone else for exactly the same thing and asked for three times that amount.

But how does someone get mistaken as a Nazi supporter? If you have to ask that question, then I envy you, because you must not be on Twitter very much and you’re probably a much more self-fulfilled person than the rest of us. The short version: The Chicago Tribune posted a picture of a Trump rally attendee doing a Heil salute in March 2016, and some Twitter users thought it might be a Bernie Sanders supporter named Portia Boulger.

Of course it wasn’t her (it was actually someone named Birgitt Peterson), but that didn’t stop James Woods from tweeting about the women with Portia’s name attached, wondering if she might have been planted at the rally by leftists. Donald Trump Jr. then retweeted Wood’s tweet, spreading it even further.

Interestingly, after it was confirmed that Boulger was not the woman in question, Trump Jr. deleted the tweet immediately, but Woods did not — at least, not until Boulger’s attorneys contacted him a few weeks later. This was part his retraction statement:

Ms. Boulder has reached out to me and asked me to use my many followers to stop people from harassing her. I am more than happy to do so.

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 23, 2016

(Remember, her name is “Boulger.”)

Though she supports @BernieSanders, I am happy to defend her from abuse. I only wish his supporters would do the same for other candidates.

— James Woods (@RealJamesWoods) March 23, 2016

Surprisingly, these two tweets did not do much to quell the hatred and abuse Boulger received online; in the lawsuit, Boulger goes so far as to call them defamatory in their own right.

“On its face, that is not defamation,” Woods’ lawyer argued in a statement to The Hollywood Reporter. “In fact, Mr. Woods went out of his way to defend Ms. Boulger against alleged harassment. This case proves the adage ‘no good deed goes unpunished.’”

Funny you should mention punishment there, buddy! Woods, remember, sued an anonymous Twitter user for calling him a “cocaine addict” in 2015 and sought $10 million in damages — and when the user’s appeal was dropped because of his death, Woods tweeted this: