Richard Simmons Sues National Enquirer

Richard Simmons isn't missing. For those looking for the fitness guru, try Los Angeles Superior Court, where Simmons is now standing up for truth and privacy in a huge libel lawsuit against the National Enquirer, Radar Online and American Media, Inc. Simmons is targeting a series of "cruel and malicious" articles published between June 2016 and March of this year that suggested he was transitioning from a male to a female, including reports of "shocking sex surgery," breast implants, hormone treatments and consultations on medical castration.

Neville Johnson, the attorney for Simmons, continues, "The law of defamation and false light invasion of privacy exist to vindicate this elemental right. The law protects the right of every person to be treated with decency and dignity, free from the deliberate propagation of falsehoods that have no motivation other than exploitation. It is to vindicate that right, and the rights of all persons to be portrayed with dignity and honesty with regard to their sexual identity, that Mr. Simmons files this lawsuit."

The complaint filed on Monday paints the tabloids' conduct as "particularly egregious," a cynical calculation that Simmons wouldn't sue because he wouldn't want to appear as frowning upon the act of transitioning from one gender to another.