The Time Zsa Zsa Gabor’s On-Set Feud Turned Into a $3 Million Lawsuit
What To Know
- Elke Sommer’s infamous feud with Zsa Zsa Gabor began in 1984 and escalated from backstage insults to a public war of words.
- The rivalry culminated in a high-profile 1993 libel lawsuit, with Sommer suing Gabor for $10 million.
- Sommer ultimately won the case, receiving $3.3 million in damages.
Happy birthday to Elke Sommer, actress, icon, and the woman at the center of one of the most contentious (and gloriously petty) feuds in Hollywood history. The A Shot in the Dark star turns 85 and is still remembered for her beauty, her talent, and a courtroom battle against Zsa Zsa Gabor that outlasted many of her movies.
Her long-running war of words with Gabor didn’t just make headlines; it escalated into a full-blown legal battle, complete with flying insults, televised takedowns, and a million-dollar defamation lawsuit that turned their rivalry into the stuff of legends. What started as sniping turned into scorched-earth glam warfare, proving that in old Hollywood, hell hath no fury like a celebrity scorned.
The feud between the German-born actress and Gabor reportedly began in 1984, when both appeared on the show Circus of the Stars. According to Sommer, she remembered watching Gabor mount a horse backstage and commenting, “Poor horse.”
In an article by the L.A. Times, attorney Neil C. Newsom said his client resented Sommer’s stating that she had a “rather big behind and needing four people to help her on the horse.”
After the original clash on Circus of the Stars, the feud simmered for years, but things exploded when Zsa Zsa Gabor and her husband at the time, Frédéric Prinz von Anhalt, began giving interviews, badmouthing Elke Sommer in the tabloids. In the press, the duo was accused of calling Sommer an alcoholic, a liar, calling her a “has-been,” and stating she had to “sell hand-knitted pullover sweaters to eke out a living.”
The Sommer vs. Gabor feud eventually escalated into a high-profile libel lawsuit in 1993, one of the most notorious “celebrity vs. celebrity” courtroom battles of its time, as Sommer sued Gabor for $10 million. On the stand, Sommer said the rumors had caused her to lose work and be humiliated.
The press ate it up. This was what tabloids lived for. Two glamorous European beauties berating each other in public, airing out their grievances in a courtroom for all to see.
In the end, a jury ruled in favor of Elke Sommer. She was awarded $3.3 million in damages, which became one of the largest public celebrity-vs-celebrity libel judgments of the decade.
Today, the lawsuit may be the headline most people remember, but Sommer’s legacy is far bigger than a courtroom win.
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