Bostwick has had bad experiences negotiating retractions with the tabs. The retraction can even be more damaging, because they'll print the truth as they know it. And then another few million issues will go to press repeating the damaging information. Or they'll repeat the allegation with some snide comment. You have to be careful.
Retractions can cut both ways.
Such resolutions are also full of pitfalls for angry celebs. Still, it's something. The paper had erroneously reported that the star of the TV sitcom Friends had checked into a rehabilitation hospital for a drug problem. Although Perry had previous well-documented problems with substance abuse, he happened to be at the hospital ministering to his sick grandfather. The give-back ran in the same space as the mistaken report, with the same headline size.