RAMONES - EX-RAMONES MANAGER SUES GAY MAGAZINE

EX-RAMONES MANAGER SUES GAY MAGAZINE

The former-manager of rock legends the RAMONES and IGGY POP has filed a $100 million (GBP50 million) lawsuit against an American gay magazine for publishing fake quotes portraying him as a "sexual predator". Danny Fields filed the defamation suit against Out magazine in New York's Manhattan Supreme Court earlier this month (Sep07). The 65-year-old claims his career has been damaged beyond repair by the false allegations, which imply he bribed underage fans to have sex with him in exchange for meeting their idols. The lifestyle magazine quotes Fields, who is openly homosexual, as saying: "I don't remember ever being inhibited by saying, 'I'm the manager of the band. If you want to meet them, come to my hotel room and sleep with me, and I'll introduce you to them in the morning.'" But Fields - who was an influential figure in New York's 1970s punk rock scene - denies ever saying this. He tells the New York Post's gossip column PageSix, "My reputation is ruined because Out has called me virtually a sexual predator. It is atrocious." "The implication is while my bands were playing, I was trawling the audience for kids... like I used the performances as an excuse to cruise and pick up underage teens. The quotes are also so ungrammatical. I would never even talk like that. I have advanced degrees in English literature... They gay-bashed me."