Olivia de Havilland's lawsuit against FX over Feud continues to move forward as a Los Angeles Superior Court judge said today the network will not be able to strike her complaint. FX was looking to get the Oscar-winning actress' case tossed under anti-SLAPP and First Amendment grounds.
The case has been fast-tracked based on de Havilland's "unusually advanced age," to quote the paperwork from her lawyers - she's 101. An approximately five- to seven-day trial is set to start in November.
De Havilland's suit, filed in late June, claims the portrayal of the two-time Oscar-winning actor by Catherine Zeta-Jones in Ryan Murphy's FX anthology series damaged her "professional reputation for integrity, honesty, generosity, self-sacrifice, and dignity."
On Friday, the defendants were looking to strike down the suit under California's SLAPP law, which was denied. Judge Holly Kendig said that after extensively reviewing the defendant's motions to strike, that the plaintiff sufficiently met her burden on all motions.