26 February 2014
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New playwriting prize in honour of Philip Seymour Hoffman
The annual $45,000 prize will be funded by the US magazine publisher that falsely reported an affair between the actor and his friend, playwright David Katz ...
The annual $45,000 prize will be funded by the US magazine publisher that falsely reported an affair between the actor and his friend, playwright David Katz
Philip Seymour Hoffman died earlier this month of a suspected overdose. Three days after his death, a libellous article appeared in The National Enquirer reporting that Hoffman had an affair with Mr Katz.
David Katz came up with the idea for the playwriting prize in Hoffman's honour after settling the libel case. The article has since been withdrawn and The National Enquirer is apologising via an advertisement in The New York Times, the newspaper that broke the story.
The new prize, called The Relentless Award, will be awarded annually for an unproduced play by the newly created American Playwriting Foundation.
'The money that's being paid by the Enquirer will fund the $45,000-a-year prize for many years to come,' David Katz's lawyer Judd Bernstein told news agency AFP.
'Since Mr Katz didn't want money we both agreed the answer was to force The Enquirer to pay money that could be used in a positive way and then the idea of the actual foundation was Mr Katz's.'
Philip Seymour Hoffman died earlier this month of a suspected overdose. Three days after his death, a libellous article appeared in The National Enquirer reporting that Hoffman had an affair with Mr Katz.
David Katz came up with the idea for the playwriting prize in Hoffman's honour after settling the libel case. The article has since been withdrawn and The National Enquirer is apologising via an advertisement in The New York Times, the newspaper that broke the story.
The new prize, called The Relentless Award, will be awarded annually for an unproduced play by the newly created American Playwriting Foundation.
'The money that's being paid by the Enquirer will fund the $45,000-a-year prize for many years to come,' David Katz's lawyer Judd Bernstein told news agency AFP.
'Since Mr Katz didn't want money we both agreed the answer was to force The Enquirer to pay money that could be used in a positive way and then the idea of the actual foundation was Mr Katz's.'
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