Charlie Sheen is suing the National Enquirer over a Nov. 8 story alleging the actor raped then-child star Corey Haim in the 1980s.
The suit, filed Friday in Los Angeles, called the story an “egregious, hurtful, and disgusting campaign of defamations,” according to court documents obtained by Variety. Sheen, 52, is seeking unspecified damages.
The Enquirer claimed in its report that Sheen, then about 19, sexually assaulted 13-year-old Haim on the set of the 1986 film “Lucas.” The tabloid quotes Haim’s friend Dominick Brascia as saying Haim and Sheen “smoked pot and had … anal sex.”
Sheen “categorically denies these allegations,” a rep for the actor said shortly after the story’s publication. Brascia is named as one of the suit’s defendants, as is Dylan Howard, chief content officer of American Media Inc., the Enquirer’s parent company.
Howard, the suit alleges, “is on an active vendetta against” Sheen.
“With calculated malice, the National Enquirer has concluded that it can make money by running false and salacious stories claiming that Mr. Sheen is a sexual molester that preys on young pubescent boys,” the suit claims.
Howard also has been the target of sexual misconduct allegations.
American Media told Variety in a statement that it was “look[ing] forward to litigating” against Sheen.
″[We] can’t wait to expose his depravities in a court of law,” the company said.
Haim died in 2010 at the age of 38. His mother said in a recent interview that she did not believe Sheen had raped her son. She told Dr. Oz that Haim had been sexually abused as a teenager, but that Brascia had been the culprit.