Australian readers curious to dive into Ronan Farrow’s new book may have a hard time finding a copy.
Two of the country’s largest online booksellers have pulled Farrow’s Catch and Kill from their inventory following lawsuit threats from a man mentioned in the book, the New York Times reports.
Attorneys representing Dylan Howard, the former National Enquirer editor, threatened Australian booksellers with legal action if they sold the book. In a letter, the lawyers wrote, “We note that if the book is distributed by you in Australia and our client is correct as to the defamatory imputations contained within the book, we are instructed to initiate immediate defamation proceedings against the Publisher, and our client will have no alternative but to join you as a party to those proceedings as a distributor.”
Amazon Australia and Booktopia have since stopped selling the book.
In Catch and Kill, Farrow claims that Howard, who is Australian, tried to shield Harvey Weinstein from allegations of sexual misconduct by digging up dirt on one of his accusers, the actress Rose McGowan.
The Guardian reports that as of Tuesday, Farrow’s book was still on sale in some brick-and-mortar bookstores in Australia.
One bookseller, David May of Gleebooks in Sydney, told the newspaper that they planned to sell the book, but had yet to receive copies of it from its distributor.
“We haven’t been asked to withdraw it,” May said. “We would be expecting stock any day from a mainstream supplier. And we would be expecting to put it on shelves.”
Michael Schaub is an Austin, Texas–based journalist and regular contributor to NPR.
