Rob Lowe wins important ruling on celebrity non-disclosure agreements

By Eriq Gardner

Rob Lowe's lawsuit against a former nanny who blabbed to the press about the actor's alleged propensity to walk around the house nude and talk about his sex life is shaping up to be an important one for celebrities everywhere.

Last year, Lowe filed a breach of contract claim against Laura Boyce, who was formerly employed by Lowe and his wife and signed an agreement not to talk about anything she learned on the job. Since then, Boyce filed an anti-SLAPP counterclaim, alleging that Lowe's litigation amounted to a suppression of her free speech rights.

The case raises an important question in this age of increasingly invasive press coverage of public figures: Can celebrities muzzle their hired help by having them sign contracts that swear secrecy? The parties argued this topic in briefs submitted to the court in March, and after her review, Judge Maureen Duffy-Lewis has rejected Boyce's motion to dismiss Lowe's lawsuit.

Some media outlets are reporting that the judge has rejected Boyce's claim that the confidentiality agreement is invalid, although it appears that assessment might be a little ahead of the curve. For now, the lawsuit isn't about free speech. The question of the contract's validity will be tested at a later trial. 

Since Lowe is surely not the first celebrity to have a leaker in his midst, and we live, to quote the original complaint, in an information age that "has forced celebrities to zealously guard their privacy," the ultimate decision in this case may impact the way that celebrities engage (and, more importantly, disengage) their entourage of helpers.