Dethroned newspaper baron Conrad Black is suing British writer Tom Bower for libel.
Black said in the suit, which was filed in Canada, that Bower’s book “Conrad & Lady Black Dancing on the Edge” was “sadistic, pathologically mendacious and malicious” and portrayed his wife, Barbara Amiel, as “shrill and a harridan.”
Black – who goes to trial next month in Chicago for allegedly plundering millions from investors in his newspaper company – said the unauthorized biography is full of falsehoods.
He notes, for example, that Andy Warhol asked to paint him, “not the other way round,” as Bower wrote.
Also, as a child, Black said he went to school in car pools with neighbors and ate in the school with everyone else, not meals delivered by a chauffeur.
The Canadian-born media magnate, who has a history of filing defamation suits, is seeking $11 million in damages.
Bower is known for his contentious biographies, including a book about Richard Branson of Virgin records and airline fame and the late newspaper magnate Robert Maxwell.
The Post published a series of excerpts from the Black biography, which was published in the U.S. under the title “Outrageous Fortune: The Rise and Ruin of Conrad and Lady Black.”
Black’s legal woes began in 2003 when shareholders started questioning $32 million in allegedly improper payments to himself and other executives at his newspaper company, Hollinger International.