WARWICK SUES TABLOID OVER BONE DISEASE STORY

Claiming that she “does not suffer from any such disease,” singer Dionne Warwick has filed a $30-million libel suit against the Globe supermarket tabloid for a story claiming a jawbone disease is destroying her face.

Warwick, 44, has been the victim of rumors spawned by the story since it was published Jan. 14, her attorney, Ivan Hoffman, said Tuesday.

“The headline read ‘Dionne Warwick Might Never Sing Again,’ ” Hoffman stated. “And the offensive part of the article described ‘a tragic disease . . . destroying the bones in her beautiful face.’ ”

Globe attorney Paul Levy in Chicago said, “We believe in the substance of what we published and will vigorously defend the lawsuit.”

Hoffman said the suit was filed after the Globe, based in Boca Raton, Fla., refused to print a retraction. California law requires a person to first seek a retraction before filing a libel suit. Warwick lives in Beverly Hills.

Hoffman said the Globe stated in a letter to him that the editors had several reasons for believing the article to be true. But Hoffman said there was nothing substantial to support those contentions.

The lawsuit seeks $15 million in compensatory and $15 million in punitive damages. Named as defendants are the Globe’s parent corporation, Globe International, executive publisher Tony Miles and Michael Gross, whom Hoffman identified as the author of the article. Also named are 10 unidentified people who may have assisted in publishing the story.