The man who claims he had an intimate “love affair” with A-list actor John Travolta back in the ’80s has been granted the opportunity to challenge the validity of his 20-year-old confidentiality agreement in order to write a tell-all memoir.
Douglas Gotterba, the 64-year-old pilot who told the National Enquirer that sex with John Travolta “was gentle but very passionate,” was granted the motion by a California appeals court Tuesday.
He has previously claimed that during his tenure at Travolta’s aircraft company Alto, the two were essentially dating. He filed a complaint recently after receiving several cease-and-desist letters from Travolta’s attorney, who claimed that sharing any information regarding his employment at Alto would be in direct violation of the termination agreement he signed upon leaving the company in 1987.
It’s understood that the real points of contention here are the supposed “intimate details” Gotterba wants to share about his relationship with Travolta in his new memoir. Though the actor’s camp has previously refuted the allegations as “ridiculous,” Gotterba has remained a noted character in the seemingly never-ending speculation about John Travolta’s sexuality.
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Speculation that the letters sent to Gotterba are directly related to his alleged “affair” is further fueled by their timing — The Hollywood Reporter says the letters only started coming once Gotterba revealed he wanted to “tell the story of his life and those involved in it” through a book and another exclusive interview with the Enquirer.
Attorneys for both Travolta and Gotterba have now taken to arguing about the authenticity of the alleged termination agreement Gotterba signed in 1987, which included a confidentiality agreement that’s believed to be indefinite.
Both parties seem to agree that some sort of agreement was signed, though they disagree on what was in the actual agreement.
According to Gotterba, his agreement dated March 1987 “does not contain a confidentiality provision restricting Gotterba’s disclosure of personal, confidential, or proprietary information obtained during the course of his employment with Atlo.”
Alto, on the other hand, claims it has a different signed agreement dated April 1987, which includes the following provision:
“You hereby represent that you have not and will not disclose, communicate, use, nor permit the use of, in any fashion, any personal (i.e., those matters not customarily disclosed by Employer other than to insiders, in the case of [Atlo], or close friends in the case of Travolta), confidential or proprietary information about Employer or any principals of Employer that you obtained during your employment with Employer.”
Travolta’s attorney, Martin Singer, tells THR that he’s “confident that in the end we will prevail.”
We sure hope he’s wrong, because this potential story sounds too juicy to miss out on. Pun intended.
Cam
“Travolta’s attorney, who claimed that sharing any information regarding his employment at Alto would be in direct violation of the termination agreement he signed upon leaving the company in 1987.”
_______________________
Interesting that the attorney didn’t simply say that any assertion that they had a relationship would be a lie. He could have said that, but didn’t, instead saying that talking about these things would be a violation of the confidentiality agreement.
That pretty much tells the story right there.
Nowuvedoneit
@Cam: really and pull out a confidentiality agreement from 1987, no shade no T but that old queen has her ass covered.
friscoguy
Jeesh leave him alone who cares. This guy sounds like a bully. Travolta was such a hot guy one has to wonder with all the tail he came into contact with would he really chose this guy?
masc4masc
Why does he HAVE to write this book that will allegedly out John Travolta? Travolta’s not bothering anyone. Gotterba will just be showing everyone he’s a bitter, vindictive, money-hungry queen who’s still stuck on an alleged fling from the 80’s. I’d question the legitimacy of any claim coming from someone like that.
Dxley
Why not just let the man live the life he wants to? He owes nobody an explanation. If he wants a life with a wife and children, regardless of his sexuality, then so be it. Gay people have become such bullies and feel like everyone is obligated to come out and live a gay life even when so much could be at stake. If a man prefers staying in the closet (or glass closet), then let’s respect that. This is ridiculous!
LAguy323
Dxley: this is not a question of simply letting John Travolta “live the life he wants to”. John has been repeatedly and brazenly groping, molesting, and physically assaulting men he encounters repeatedly over many years. If he put his hands on women in the same way, people would be screaming for him to go to jail. John Travolta is the worst kind of closet case. People like you apologize for his aberrant behavior.
michael mellor
If Travolta is into both men and women, let him be. He’s with a woman now so stop being such jealous queens. She owns him, not you.
ppp111
@LAguy323:
That’s funny because I thought about that too. It seems when it’s a male-on-male harassment case, people seem willing to dismiss it or view the accuser as a gold digger. Sad.
billforsyth
I cannot see why this is even thought relevant or important .Travolta is not a politician espousing contradictory values in order to win votes ,He is surely as entitled to a private life as anyone else .Personally I have always thought it rather despicable when someone tries to exploit a past relationship for financial purposes and there is a difference between the public interest and the public being interested.
tardis
The downside to fame right here.
Billy Budd
..Everybody knows Travolta and Tom Cruise are both insane, gay, closet cases and scientologists. Travolta is so crazy that he let his own son die of epilepsy because he did not give him any medication, following the dogmas of scientology.
..I don’t see any controversy here. This book will have nothing to add.
Jim Guinnessey
Gotterba is after money. Nothing else as he can’t wait to sell his stupid story hoping that the prurient no life crowds will rush to read his book. Why not leave Travolta alone!
LadyL
@billforsyth: My first thought upon reading this story was “Who the hell is Douglas Gotterba and why would anyone besides his family and closest friends want to read his memoir?”
But you know something? The guy has every right to write about his life and if there was an intimate relationship with a celebrity somewhere in his past, of course he’d want to discuss it, confidentiality agreement or no confidentiality agreement. Can we just admit that the only reason this confidentiality agreement existed at all was to allow Travolta to have these flings in secret?
Of course money is a factor for his writing the book. So what? If you were writing a book wouldn’t you want it to sell? So Gotterba includes Travolta–what big state secret would he be revealing? That John Travolta had a *GASP* gay romance?
I’m growing really impatient with the whole “he’s not a politician voting against LGBT rights so leave him alone” argument. John Travolta is not “entitled to a private life.” Sorry, but no. That’s not how fame works and he learned that, as every major celebrity inevitably does, many years ago.
The closet is horribly destructive, we all know that. It warps a person’s humanity, adding a nasty edge to an already inflated sense of celebrity entitlement. Travolta has been allowed to get away with some very objectionable behavior for a very long time, enabled by everyone’s unwillingness to out him. We’re all supposed to feel so sorry for the guy; we’ve been so busy worrying about his being victimized that we’ve completely ignored the plight of those HE has victimized.
LadyL
@Dxley: Sorry, but I’m calling bullshit. I feel no obligation to “respect” a man who has spent decades living a double life and apparently believes his closet entitles him to be allowed to get away with harassing others without censure. I find Travolta pathetic and what’s ridiculous is the hypocrisy that has protected him.
michael mellor
How is Travolta living a double life if he’s only seeing his wife? No double life there.
Billy Budd
He has money, including 2 private jets of considerable size. He can buy the rights for the book, he can bribe anyone, he can do almost anything. He won’t come out, he will never come out. Remember he is a scientologist, and scientologists cannot be gay. Scientologists are perfect by definition.
Billy Budd
Before you criticize me, NO, I don’t think being gay is an imperfection. It is just being part of a minority.
Lvng1tor
Shady Looser Bitter Queen…And this time I’m not talking about Travolta…
LadyL
@michael mellor: The double life he lives is in publicly presenting himself as a happily married hetero while at the same time pursuing other men for sex and romantic companionship whether they want the attention or not.
Billy Budd
Hypocrite. That’s what he is.
michael mellor
LadyL,
How do you know that Travolta is seeing other people currently? You’ve presented no evidence.
LAguy323
@LadyL: Very well said! Thank you!
tricky ricky
Travolta is a known liar. he lied for years about his sons condition saying he wasn’t autistic (it was caused by fumes from getting the rug cleaned) until after he died when he finally admitted the kid was autistic. (this always royally pissed me off because I’m autistic and I could tell what was really wrong with the kid)
there’s some porn star (straight, he’s hairy and directs gay porn) from the 70’s/80’s that said he had a relationship with Travolta. there there’s the photo of him kissing the guy on the lips while they were getting on his jet.
Lefty
At least Travolta is living his life, while the tragic ‘out him now’ contingent seem only to have time to stick their noses into other people’s lives.
With the twisted logic that outing him against his will is somehow good for the gay community (the fact that if he is gay then he’s part of it hasn’t quite occurred to them). Oh right, I forgot: the gay community is only those who are out (so that’s a huge proportion of the world’s gay population out in the cold) and who are deemed appropriate to be a part of the gang.
Also he hasn’t been convicted of any sexual wrong-doing and it doesn’t seem to have occurred to anyone that there could be homophobia behind some of the accusations (‘gay panic’ anyone?), not to mention people seeing a chance at making some money. But no! He’s in the closet and he must be ejected from it forcibly!
Think about the gay community! Think about the gay children!
Billy Budd
@Lefty: You would probably right in most cases, but Travolta is a religious fanatic, and I have little simpathy for religiolus fanatics. That is why I want him outed and I want the world to see the hypocrite he really is. And assassin of his own son.
GeriHew
Let’s face it, the world is quite simple not ready for John Travolta to come out as a happily married, proud bisexual man and father. Not so soon after Rolf Harris has been exposed, tried, convicted and imprisoned for committing a series of sexual offenses against young women and underage girls.
Indeed, for Mr. Travolta to come out at this time would constitute an act of gross social irresponsibility on his part, as it would no doubt lead to widespread moral panic in the general population, and might even spell the end of civilization as we know it.
As for Ms. Anna Panquin – who the hell does she think she is?
Desert Boy
“I’ve know John for 30 years. Everyone knows he’s gay.” – Carrie Fisher
Cam
@GeriHew:
Yes, you keep on applauding the guy harassing guys like personal trainer and then buying them off. Apparently “Proud” means something different to you.
I see that the usual suspects are here again screaming and freaking out at the thought that ANYBODY should have to do something so horrible and disgusting as admit they are gay or bi.
Oh and “Lefty” we all saw the reports that right wing blogs suggested people take “Appropriate Screenames” and go on other sites and attack the president and any liberal values. Just a suggestion, if you’re going to do that, pick a less obvious screename.
And lastly, just so I’m clear. Travolta is free to do anything but the other guy better NEVER do anything or he is an evil asshole.
You guys might want to also go attack Carrie Fisher who outed him quite a while ago.
GeriHew
@Desert Boy:
@Cam: I wonder how stinky sarcasm needs to be before you can smell it Cam?
On a more serious note, Carrie Fisher apparently can’t even bring herself to call the father of her only child anything but “gay” after he came out as bisexual and left her for another man. So clearly the poor woman has some issues of her own to deal with.
Cam
@GeriHew:
I read your sarcasm, I just didn’t agree with it.
As for Ms. Fisher, nothing you said alters the fact of what she said. She outed Travolta quite clearly, whatever she does or doesn’t say about anybody else doesn’t really alter that fact.
masc4masc
@Cam: Actually, Carrie Fisher’s bipolar and has been hospitalized more than once for her manic episodes.
masc4masc
This all seems very homophobic too. Gotterba’s obviously bitter about something, and it seems he feels outing Travolta is a way of ruining Travolta’s reputation…like gay is a bad thing. Whenever you try to out someone, you mean it as some sort of revenge. Outing someone is never done with good intentions.
GeriHew
@masc4masc: Carrie Fisher is also bisexual and her long term lesbian lover is Penny Marshall. At least according to The National Enquirer she is. So there.
Cam
@masc4masc:
And that has what to do with her comments?
masc4masc
@Cam: Hmmm…let’s see: bipolar, institutionalized multiple times for mania, possibly harboring some resentment towards bisexual men after her husband drops her for another man…
If someone was to try and out me, let’s just say I’d totally want it to be a basket case like Carrie Fisher. lol
LilyLily
@friscoguy: I say leave him alone. If he wants to come out the closet, it should be his choice. I agree with you. Why would he choose that dude?