Diminutive Mogul's Big Blog Battle
Oct. 27 2008, Published 7:07 a.m. ET
NOT AT ALL ALIKE Dwarf, Sorrell (inset)
Formerly anonymous bloggers Marco Tinelli and Marco Benatti are having their day in court this week in London, accused of libel against their boss, advertising mogul Sir Martin Sorrell. The case is the first defamation case that extends to private blogs, reports the London Times, and no doubt it will have Perez Hilton quaking in his Uggs the next time he scrawls "Crack Whore" over Mischa Barton's bod.
Sorrell, apparently, wasn't thrilled when pictures of himself and a female executive appeared on the blog labeled "the mad dwarf and the nympho schizo." He hired a private executive to track the blog, which had been registered under a false name.
Sorrell's assault on the disgruntled bloggers may have backfired, however, since it's now almost impossible to look at him without thinking "mad dwarf." The British press, naturally, is more evenhanded, querying the roots of his unpopularity, and conceding, at the least, his "diminutive" stature. Sorrell, however, insists these claims and others were "nasty and false." He is not, technically speaking, a dwarf.
