Sofia Vergara's lawyer, Fred Silberberg, has issued a statement to Us Weekly regarding recent claims that the actress is being sued by her own embryos, which she had frozen during a previous relationship with Nick Loeb.
Silberberg is confident that the lawsuit will result in failure, although he does not confirm or deny the circumstances of the story currently circulating. "The media reports contend that Mr. Loeb has caused a lawsuit to be initiated claiming that the pre-embryos — which are not embryos, but rather frozen fertilized ova, have been given names by him and have a right to live," he told the magazine. His current tactic is to explain the present situation, instead of verifying or refuting it until the case is taken to court.
He says that a judge will preside over the case next week "to rule on Ms. Vergara’s request for sanctions against Mr. Loeb for refusing to comply with a court order, and on her motion for summary judgment-seeking dismissal of the case he filed against her, attempting to get control of pre-embryos that he created with Vergara. That genetic material was created pursuant to a written agreement that required both parties written consent to attempt to create a pregnancy."
In other words, Vergara's people think this suit will fade away, and soon.
This post was originally published at 6:30 a.m. on December 7.
Sofia Vergara's legal battle against former fiancé Nick Loeb just got much more complicated.
Page Six reports that a right-to-live lawsuit has been filed against the Modern Family star on behalf of her own frozen embryos. Vergara, who underwent fertility treatments while in a relationship with Loeb but has since married actor Joe Manganiello, has been fighting to have the embryos destroyed. Loeb, meanwhile, intends to use a surrogate and raise any resulting children on his own.
The lawsuit was filed in Louisiana, the state in which Loeb attended college, and lists the female embryos and trustee James Carbonnet as plaintiffs. It has also taken the liberty of naming the embryos, referring to them as Emma and Isabella in court papers.
According to Page Six, the lawsuit has the potential to become a landmark case for the pro-life movement. The suit argues that the embryos have a Louisiana-based trust set up on their behalf to pay for education and healthcare. As such, Vergara isn't merely depriving them of life, the argument goes — she's cutting off their income. Clearly, there's a lot for pro-choice advocates to sink their teeth into.
Vergara's team has not yet commented on the matter.