If I were Brooke Shields, I'd be suing everyone in sight!



SHIELDS LIVID AFTER JOURNALIST CHECKS HER MOM OUT OF NURSING HOME.


Brooke Shields is threatening legal action after her mother, who suffers from dementia, was checked out of her New Jersey nursing home by a tabloid journalist.

The outraged actress told PEOPLE she was notified by police on Thursday that her mom, Teri Shields, was found at a restaurant near her assisted living center talking to a reporter. Shields claims The National Enquirer was behind the alleged trick, and says they were after a "tabloid story" about her. The tabloid denies wrongdoing, and described the encounter nothing more than two friends having lunch.

Shields called the idea of taking advantage of her mother in her condition, "reprehensible and disgusting."

"My mother Teri Shields has been diagnosed with dementia. For her safety, she has temporarily been in a senior living facility, a very difficult decision for me," she says. "Late Thursday afternoon, I was alerted by Old Tappan Police that my mother had been signed out of the facility by two reporters of the National Enquirer who falsely claimed they were friends of hers."

She adds: "They then drove my 75-year-old mother around looking for a tabloid story. As anyone knows who has a parent who suffers from dementia or Alzheimer's, it is one of the most difficult experiences you can go through as a son or daughter. The idea that the National Enquirer took advantage of her state is reprehensible and disgusting."

On Friday, The National Enquirer posted a story on its Web site with the headline: "BROOKE SHIELDS' MOM: THE BORING TRUTH." In it, the tabloid calls the story much ado about nothing and that the reporter was simply an old friend looking to catch up.

According to the Enquirer, "A freelance reporter who has known Teri Shields for more than 10 years visited her" where she "asked the reporter to take her out to lunch and to run some errands" and later they "went to a restaurant next to the assisted living facility and spent time together catching up. Teri ate a cheeseburger."

The Enquirer: "At no point did the facility, which had given its permission for the outing, contend that there had been any wrongdoing in a situation where two people who had known each for more than a decade."

Capt. Thomas Shine of the Old Tappan Police Dept. said they interviewed the journalist at the restaurant, but that a photographer who was with them had already left the scene.
No charges have been filed, but there is an ongoing investigation into the senior home.

"The part we're investigating here is who allowed her to leave the facility," said Shine. "It appears that there were some permissions that were given for Mrs. Shields by the family, be they written, be they verbal we're investigating to allow her visitation for a variety of different reasons."

Shields is livid, telling PEOPLE she'll go after both the journalists and the nursing home for their alleged lack of security measures.

"I intend to take every lawful action against all who were involved or who authorized this despicable act."