John Travolta's Cruise Ship Case Dropped

4:37 PM PST 2/5/2013 by Eriq Gardner

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Actor said it was a "fabrication" that he disrobed and forcefully embraced another man.

John Travolta

The attorneys for John Travolta and a cruise ship worker accusing the actor of assault stipulated to the dismissal of a high-profile lawsuit.

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The lawsuit was filed by Fabian Zanzi, a ship attendant on the Royal Caribbean cruise ship that carried Travolta as a passenger in June 2009. Zanzi says that upon request, he gave Travolta a neck massage. Travolta allegedly disrobed, exposed himself and then "forcefully embraced" him.

On Friday, a judge denied Travolta's attempt to throw it into arbitration. On Monday, the parties agreed to drop the case. Neither party was available to discuss what prompted the dismissal.

In the lawsuit, Travolta gave his own sworn declaration.

"While I was indeed a passenger aboard the MS Enchantment of the Seas in or about June 2009, Mr. Zanzi's allegations in the Complaint are entirely false, including... a purported physical encounter with me and his allegations... regarding an alleged financial offer I made him. None of these events happened, and Zanzi's allegations are pure fabrication."

In preparing to defend the lawsuit, Travolta's attorney Marty Singer threatened to go after Zanzi for malicious prosecution.

In December, a motion was also made to get Zanzi to put up a bond of $75,000 if he wished to continue given what Travolta's attorney said was the possibility that a judge would later award Travolta's attorney's fees and the "reasonable possibility" that Travolta would defeat the claims of the plaintiff, a resident of Chile.

The dismissal figures to save some unwelcome press as well as some airfare. In the case, Travolta's lawyers said they would have to travel to at least three foreign countries to conduct depositions. Now, the case of an alleged massage gone bad on the high seas is over.

E-mail: eriq.gardner@thr.com; Twitter: @eriqgardner