{"id":15560,"date":"2021-03-02T17:42:40","date_gmt":"2021-03-02T17:42:40","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/?post_type=articles&p=15560"},"modified":"2021-03-03T14:40:11","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T14:40:11","slug":"exclusive-meet-the-most-powerful-man-in-hollywood-who-lives-in-belfast","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/exclusive-meet-the-most-powerful-man-in-hollywood-who-lives-in-belfast\/","title":{"rendered":"Exclusive: Meet The Most Powerful Man In Hollywood (Who Lives In Belfast)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Paul Tweed is in a feisty mood. The Northern Irish attorney has built a reputation as one of the most formidable defamation lawyers in the world, with a client list that reads like a who\u2019s who of the last 20 years\u2019 biggest celebrities. Liam Neeson, Justin Timberlake, Jennifer Lopez, Ashton Kutcher, Nicolas Cage, and Harrison Ford \u2013 as well as many others \u2013 have all contracted his services. Thanks to his unique skills, they’ve all emerged the better for it, with many of the biggest media corporations in the world being forced to withdraw stories, issue apologies, or make substantial payouts after Tweed put on the pressure. In 2006, he even forced the National Enquirer<\/em> to publish an apology after successfully representing Britney Spears in an action against the tabloid: it was the first apology issued by the publication in its 96-year history.<\/p>\n

Now 65, but fizzing with the energy and enthusiasm of a man half his age, Tweed is setting his sights on a bigger target.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAs the media changes, then obviously my job changes dramatically,\u201d he says. \u201cThe likes of Amazon\u2014these are the big battlegrounds now.\u201d<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not just Amazon that has attracted Paul Tweed\u2019s attention. He\u2019s taking on the biggest, most powerful corporations in the world.<\/p>\n

\u201cMost of my work now is against social media\u2014Facebook, Twitter, the search engines that have established European headquarters in Dublin,\u201d he says. And, with something approaching glee, he points out that it\u2019s precisely this tax-savvy move by the big tech companies that has exposed a chink in their armor.<\/p>\n

In 2010, President Obama introduced the Speech Act, which stipulated that a U.S. citizen cannot sue a fellow citizen or U.S. corporation outside mainland U.S.A. Although it was designed to stop the so-called \u201clibel tourism\u201d that helped make Tweed\u2019s name, he now believes he can use that same Act to target the social media companies.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they\u2019re based in Dublin, we can sue them,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd most importantly for an L.A. client, so can they. The Speech Act had a sobering effect. But along come Facebook and Twitter and Google and suddenly it is tax tourism, not libel tourism. They had to form Irish companies to take advantage of the favorable Irish corporate tax regime so the Speech Act suddenly doesn\u2019t apply. They\u2019re not an American company any more. And that was a big \u2018whoops!\u2019 for them.\u201d<\/p>\n

One might think that challenging Jeff Bezos or Mark Zuckerberg\u2014men with hundreds of billions in the bank, as well as a wealth of largely unchecked power\u2014would be a frightening prospect (or at the very least, might make most people think twice about starting a fight with them). But Tweed seems unafraid of, well, anything.<\/p>\n

\u201cI prefer not to go into names, but there are people who have tried to take me out before now,\u201d he says. \u201cSimply because they don\u2019t like what I did to them, not because I did anything wrong.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s always going to be that threat they can squash you because of sheer financial power and might. I don\u2019t know if they will or not. I\u2019m taking on governments who I know are doing very, very naughty things to try and undermine me. There\u2019s one particular government and they will do everything they can and I may not be able to resist that, you just don\u2019t know\u2026 but you\u2019ve just got to keep going.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd you know what? Once they do that to me, once I know they\u2019re doing it, that\u2019s like a red rag to a bull to me, and that might end up being to my loss\u2026 but then on the other hand, it might be their loss.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tweed credits this gutsy-ness to his upbringing in 1970s Belfast\u2014at that time ground zero for what was known as \u201cthe Troubles\u201d between those fighting for a unified Ireland and those who saw Northern Ireland as part of the United Kingdom. Bombings, shootings, paramilitary activity, and terrorist attacks were part of daily life in Belfast during that period, with violence perpetrated on both sides of the divide.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, I\u2019ve been there. I\u2019ve done it all. I was brought up in Northern Ireland. I was a child of the Troubles. We had bombs going off all the time,\u201d he says. \u201cDuring the Troubles you never knew what was going on, one day to the next. I remember there was one scenario where a New York attorney called me and he said, \u2018Once I get you in court\u2026\u2019 and at this particular stage there was chaos going on in Belfast and I was like, \u2018Ooh I\u2019m trembling in my boots, what are you going to do\u2026?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Born in the seaside town of Bangor, just 13 miles from Belfast itself, Tweed confesses he didn\u2019t initially consider law as a career at all. Describing his upbringing as \u201clower middle class,\u201d he also claims to have \u201cscraped through\u201d school, before his mother, who was a legal secretary, suggested studying law.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd that was it,\u201d he says. \u201cI went to Queens University in Belfast by the skin of my teeth, and got out by the skin of my teeth\u2014and then I struck lucky: I answered a job in a local newspaper and joined a firm that specialized in conveyancing and probate and company law.\u201d<\/p>\n

He lasted a month before growing bored, and after applying for a series of positions he now describes as \u201coptimistic\u201d\u2014including Governor of the Solomon Islands and as a corporate lawyer in the Cayman Islands\u2014he began to make a name for himself in insurance law. Typically, that initial success came from a combination of charm, skill, and sheer ambition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI built up about 13 insurance company clients in nine years, mainly by entertaining claims managers. I was paid very little and had a huge overdraft. Looking back I was mad,” he recalls. “I used my own money entertaining these guys and building up that practice; it took me years to pay back. And then I got the \u2018cream bun case\u2019 and everything changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

The \u201ccream bun case\u201d might be described as the moment Paul Tweed found his calling\u2014and contains the unique mix of tabloid shenanigans and justifiable outrage that has defined much of his work since. In 1985, the Sunday World<\/em> newspaper in Northern Ireland ran a story ridiculing how two of the country\u2019s most eminent senior barristers had been seen fighting over the last chocolate \u00e9clair in a Belfast cake shop.<\/p>\n

It was funny. The only problem? It also wasn\u2019t true. Rather than laugh it off, the barristers instead hired Tweed to represent them in a libel action against the Sunday World<\/em>. The highly-publicized case ended up being settled by a jury, and the paper was forced to award nearly $70,000 in damages to each of them.<\/p>\n

From there came another high-profile case, representing the boxing promoter Barney Eastwood against former world champion Barry McGuigan. That case resulted in a $625,000 payment, the largest libel award in Northern Irish legal history.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

But it was after he successfully forced the National Enquirer<\/em> to publish their 2006 apology for falsely suggesting that the marriage of Britney Spears and then-husband Kevin Federline was on the rocks that Tweed\u2019s new status as defamation lawyer to the stars was cemented. Before the Speech Act, his trick was to argue that in the modern, ultra-connected age, the parent location of a magazine\u2019s publisher was effectively irrelevant\u2014meaning his U.S. clients could sue in a British or Irish court, where they were more likely to get a result than they might in an American court.<\/p>\n

Among the most high-profile was a case brought against Bauer, publishers of Heat<\/em> magazine, which had printed photographs of Justin Timberlake and a mystery woman, along with a suggestion that he was cheating on wife Jessica Biel behind her back.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere was a front-page photograph of him dancing in a clinch and they were trying to make out it was some clandestine love affair he was having at Jessica Biel\u2019s expense,\u201d he explains. \u201cWe brought the case in Dublin. Justin Timberlake and Jessica Biel have a worldwide reputation so it doesn\u2019t matter whether it\u2019s LA, Ireland, England, or wherever from a point of view of reputation. And from the point of view of publication, there\u2019s the same number of Heat<\/em> magazines in a supermarket in Dublin as there were in a supermarket in London.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Tweed won again, before the High Court in Ireland with Bauer apologizing. Further big-name clients followed Timberlake across the Atlantic, and the Belfast lawyer was suddenly on first-name terms with celebrities including Sylvester Stallone, Johnny Depp, Reese Witherspoon, Kelsey Grammer, and even Prince Andrew. The contrast between the local boy made good and the A-listers occasionally made for surreal scenes.<\/p>\n

\u201cI remember ABC News<\/em> did a piece on me. It was in 2006, at the time of the J. Lo and Britney stuff and they did a thing: \u2018Why are they all coming to Belfast?\u2019\u201d he says. \u201cAnd they interviewed someone in front of the City Hall in Belfast and said, \u2018Why is Britney Spears coming to Belfast to see Paul Tweed?\u2019 and she hadn\u2019t heard of Britney Spears but she had heard of me.\u201d<\/p>\n

He also maintains that despite such glittering company, he has never had his head turned by the trappings of fame.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh Christ no, I\u2019ve never been starstruck. That wouldn\u2019t be my gig at all,\u201d he says. \u201cI normally bore the pants off them before they can actually get close enough to me. Some of them probably don\u2019t remember my name\u2014I\u2019m just a service provider to them.\u201d<\/p>\n

He does concede, however, that he has remained friends with Liam Neeson, Tom Cruise, Uri Geller, and Sarah Ferguson. Perhaps more intriguingly, he notes that he is most definitely not friends with an unnamed \u201cworld famous musician.\u201d Naturally, he won\u2019t disclose who, exactly.<\/p>\n

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Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In addition, Tweed is keen to stress that his cases are not taken purely on the strength of celebrity. The bottom line remains the same as it did when he was a struggling insurance lawyer in 1970s Belfast: If Paul Tweed doesn\u2019t think he\u2019ll win, he won\u2019t take the case, no matter how big the names involved, or how much publicity it might attract.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe most important thing to me is my reputation,\u201d he says. \u201cIf I lose a case my credibility goes and this goes for all lawyers. You\u2019re putting your neck on the line. I think I turn down at least eight out of every ten people who come to me, maybe more. And I do it in the interests of the client as well.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf the first question anyone asks me is, \u2018How much do you think this is worth?\u2019 that\u2019s a big red warning light going off for me, sirens going everywhere. You do not litigate for money. You litigate to get your vindication, to get it taken down, to get an apology and a clarification. And if to strengthen that apology you need money, then so be it, but that should be way down on your list.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou know, people think that just because something\u2019s false, or wrong, that they\u2019ve got a libel action. And that\u2019s not the case at all. I always say to someone, \u2018You think you\u2019re worried now about the damage to your reputation? You wait till you\u2019re six months into legal action. That\u2019s when the real worry comes in.\u2019<\/p>\n

\u201cYou\u2019ve got to try and understand the psychology that goes through my mind the whole time. Because I\u2019m trying to think maybe six months ahead. I have to work out, this client, is he going to be able to last the pace? If he\u2019s starting to panic now, if he\u2019s ringing me every 20 minutes now, what the heck\u2019s he going to be like later? So maybe it\u2019s really not in his interests to take the case on.\u201d<\/p>\n

Of course, when you\u2019re a Hollywood A-lister used to having your every whim indulged, being told \u2018no\u2019 by a lawyer from Northern Ireland doesn\u2019t always come easy\u2014even if it is done in the nicest possible way. \u201cI\u2019ve had someone threaten to report me to the Law Society because I wouldn\u2019t take them on,\u201d he laughs. \u201cBut at the end of the day I\u2019ve been there, done that. The funny thing is I still take the view that because I\u2019ve come from nothing, even after 40 years I\u2019m really flattered every time a client comes to me, even if I end up not taking the case.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Credit: Getty Images<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

For now, Tweed\u2019s focus is very much moving away from the print media that made his reputation and toward the new media giants. With studies showing that some 80 percent of 17- to 23-year-olds in the United States get their \u201cmainstream\u201d news from Facebook, he is concerned that the social media platforms are failing to accept any responsibility for what they publish.<\/p>\n

That fake news abounds on the likes of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube is well-known; but, as Tweed argues, just because it happens doesn’t mean it should be accepted. Moreover, if some of that fake news includes libelous or defamatory comment, then he believes the platform hosting it should be held as accountable as any newspaper or magazine would be.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey\u2019re not regulated in any way at all,\u201d he says. \u201cThey say, \u2018we\u2019re a platform, we\u2019re not a publisher.\u2019 So that\u2019s the battleground. If a newspaper publishes a letter from a member of the public, the newspaper is liable for anything defamatory in that letter. So how can Facebook say, \u2018well we\u2019re just a platform, we\u2019re not liable for anything posted on there?\u2019 These people, these companies \u2013 they\u2019re too powerful already and it\u2019s becoming almost too late to get them under control.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the boy from Belfast who grew up amid the bombs and balaclavas of the Troubles isn\u2019t about to be intimidated by any dotcom billionaires. Trying to rein in the out-of-control social media giants has become Paul Tweed\u2019s new passion.<\/p>\n

He may have made his reputation as the world\u2019s sharpest defamation lawyer thanks to a host of household names (and a cream bun) \u2013 but his real legacy could still be to come. Bezos and Zuckerberg would do well to watch out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love the hunt,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I love getting solutions, I love coming up with stuff that other people just wouldn\u2019t do. I just don\u2019t like the threats, y\u2019know? If someone threatens me, that\u2019s when I really get started. My mother used to worry about that, because I can never settle, it\u2019s a character flaw. I don\u2019t let the bone go, no matter what it is.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26633,"featured_media":16168,"template":"","format":"standard","categories":[23],"yoast_head":"\nExclusive: Meet The Most Powerful Man In Hollywood (Who Lives In Belfast) - Grazia USA<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/graziamagazine.com\/us\/articles\/exclusive-meet-the-most-powerful-man-in-hollywood-who-lives-in-belfast\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Exclusive: Meet The Most Powerful Man In Hollywood (Who Lives In Belfast)\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Paul Tweed is in a feisty mood. 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