James Woods Will Move Forward With $10 Million 'Cocaine Addict' Lawsuit

The 68-year-old actor has won permission to move forward with his $10 million lawsuit against a Twitter user who alleged that Woods was a “cocaine addict.”

The lawsuit was filed in Los Angeles Superior Court against the Twitter user @abelisted, who his attorney is referring to in the case as John Doe. Woods claims that he was called a “prick” and “scum,” among other insulting names, in a series of tweets by the individual since December 2014. But the heart of his lawsuit is a tweet from last July that read, “cocaine addict James Woods still sniffing and spouting.” Woods has vehemently denied that he has ever been a cocaine addict.

The unnamed man’s attorney, Lisa Bloom, attempted to have the lawsuit thrown out, but L.A. Superior Court Judge Mel Racana denied that motion in a tentative ruling on Wednesday. Woods said in a statement to TheWrap that “the cruelty of having one’s reputation sullied by an anonymous coward is agonizing…I am deeply grateful to Judge Recana for his studious deliberation and wisdom in this case of wanton defamation. Twitter users beware: you are not above the law.”

Woods has also been determined to reveal the identity of the Twitter user, but has so far been unsuccessful in doing so. The man has been sending Bloom to court on his behalf and Twitter has cited the First Amendment in declining to reveal their identity.

Bloom has stated that the man’s tweets were not meant to be taken literally and accused Woods of hypocrisy. She declared to TheWrap that “on Twitter…Mr. Woods insults gay Americans and immigrants….he claims a prominent publisher ‘whacks off’ to a picture of a terrorist. When Twitter users challenge them, he tells them to ‘put down your crack pipe.’ He’s mockingly accused at least three other Twitter users of using crack cocaine. Mr. Woods dishes it out, but he can’t take it.”

She also vowed that the man is “resolved to fight this case for as many months or years as it takes.” He still maintains his Twitter account, but has it set to private. His profile now reads, “preserving this account but making it inaccessible because of vindictive legal bullying & documented concerns about dangerous angry threats.”