James Woods appears to be lashing back against an anonymous Twitter user who allegedly made derogatory comments against the actor since December 2014, according to the complaint.
The Hollywood Reporter broke the story and have provided an online copy of the full complaint.
A Twitter user going by the name “Abe List” reportedly engaged in a “childish game of name-calling” and referred to Woods by various names including “prick,” “joke,” “ridiculous,” and “clown-boy,” according to the complaint.
Since Hollywood Reporter issued its story early this morning, the “Abe List” account has been deleted.
Because Woods is a public figure, immature insults are not grounds for a civil suit, but the unidentified Twitter user allegedly called the actor a “cocaine addict,” which is a false statement. The claim stated the potential reach of the negative comments to be potentially in the hundreds of thousands.
Woods’ complaint alleged that @RealJamesWoods twitter following — about 239,000 followers — could have seen the tweets. In reality, “Abe List” had a paltry following of 2,274 followers before the account disappeared, according to TMZ.
The lawsuit claims damages for $10 million.
Michael E. Weinstein from the L.A. law firm, Lavely & Singer is the Woods’ main lawyer for the case.
Twitter allows users to report abuse and accounts can be deleted. However, the site notes that they cannot prevent users from getting a new account because IP blocking is generally ineffective.
Because the anonymous user is not known, it’s likely that Twitter will be issued a subpoena.
