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Logsdon (D1) wrote a short story entitled Bryson which News America (D) published in the March 1991 issue of Seventeen magazine. The story was alleged to be fiction and described a fight between Bryson and Beth Harper calling Bryson a slut and identifying the fact that D1 was a native of southern Illinois. Bryson (P) sued Ds for defamation. The trial court concluded that the statements were defamatory per se under a statute that provides that false accusations of fornication and adultery are actionable as a matter of law. D appealed.

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