A plaintiff who brought a defamation lawsuit in Cook County, Illinois against Discovery Communications in connection with the program “People Magazine Investigates: Memphis Blues,” dropped her lawsuit in January 2022 after Mandell Menkes attorneys filed a motion to dismiss citing the California anti-SLAPP law, the New York anti-SLAPP law in the alternative, and the innocent construction rule. Mandell Menkes attorneys highlighted that the California law protects speech on a matter of public interest, and that the speech at issue was a matter of qualified given that it involved the murder of former NBA player Lorenzen Wright by his ex-wife. Under the law, the plaintiff needed to plead “actual malice”, but the attorneys for the media entities involved argued the plaintiff could not meet that pleading requirement.