Mickey Rooney’s widow is going after The Hollywood Reporter for a piece published two years ago that she claims was elder abuse toward her late husband. 
 
 Janice Rooney, 79, is suing the magazine’s parent company Prometheus Global Media and several staffers for a number of things, including elder abuse, intentional infliction of emotional distress, conspiracy and accounting, according to documents obtained by Deadline. 
 
 Her lawyers assert that she agreed to do the October 2015 piece — one year after her husband’s death — if the questions would not be published without also publishing her answers. However, in the piece titled “Tears and Terror: The Disturbing Final Years of Mickey Rooney,” her words were used to make “false and humiliating allegations” brought up Janice by one of Mickey’s caregivers, Charlene (Janice’s daughter-in-law). 
 
 Mickey has long been the subject of elder abuse, allegedly at the hands of his stepchildren — and Janice Rooney was also accused of abusing her husband by the actor’s lawyer Michael Augstine. 
 
 Mickey Rooney leaves an $18G estate 
 
 The legendary actor was left with just $18,000 at the time of his death, despite an 80-year career, with accusations swirling that Janice Rooney’s children “siphoned” the money from the star, according to multiple reports. 
 
 “This exemplifies the extent to which Charlene was willing to go to exact her revenge against Jan, knowing how emotionally and mentally damaging and injurious it would be’ for her,” the detailed complaint explains of the material allegedly provided to the Hollywood Reporter via the daughter-in-law. “It also exemplifies the lengths to which the THR Defendants would go to write their tabloid Article.” 
 
 Actor Mickey Rooney in 2012. (Michael Buckner/Getty Images) 
 
 “The conduct on the parts of the THR Defendants alleged herein was done by these defendants with knowledge of Jan’s advance age, and her frail and vulnerable physical and emotional condition, as well as the sensitive nature of the subject matter, all of which they, themselves, acknowledged,” the suite obtained by THR stated. 
 
 “Despite this knowledge, however, the THR Defendants nonetheless engaged in the conduct alleged herein, whereby they took advantage of Jan’s vulnerability and frail condition, and threatened and coerced her, for their own personal gain.” 
 
 Mickey Rooney tells Congress about elder abuse by stepson 
 
 Janice Rooney allegedly stopped living with her husband in 2012 and hadn't seen him for a few years at the time of his death. 
 
 The dense 28-page report filed by the 93-year-old’s attorneys asks for a number of unspecified damages. 

 UPDATE, FEB 18, 2018: In court documents filed on January 18, Janice Rooney’s attorney requested the Los Angeles Superior Court to have the matter dismissed entirely. No details were disclosed if there was a settlement in the matter between any of the parties. 
 
 PREVIOUSLY, OCT 2017: Over three years after Mickey Rooney’s death at the age of 93, the movie icon’s widow today is suing The Hollywood Reporter for elder abuse and intentional infliction of emotional distress in a piquant complaint that alleges some very underhanded journalism on the magazine’s part. 
 
 Naming THR itself, Prometheus Global Media and magazine staffers Scott Feinberg, Gary Baum and Features Editor Peter Flax, the October 5 filing by 79-year old and “frail” Janice Rooney against the mag (read it here) seeks wide-ranging but unspecified damages. The whole action stems from an article posted online by THR on October 21, 2015 entitled “Tears and Terror: The Disturbing Final Years of Mickey Rooney.” 
 
 According to Janice Rooney and her lawyers at Woodland Hills’ Buckholtz & Associates, the real disturbing story is the “deceiving” THR article, which was published in the print edition of the then Janice Min run mag on October 30, that she “felt coerced and pressured” to participate with. A court document citing article that Rooney says took her words “out of context and relayed in a manner designed to portray (her) in a publicly negative and personally disgraceful light” after she agreed to talk to THR in late 2015, over a year after her husband’s death on April 6, 2014. 
 
 THR Editorial Director Matt Belloni did not respond to a request for comment from Deadline on today’s filing. 
 
 Rooney asserts that in agreeing to the October 2015 piece she was promised by Feinberg that “none of the questions would be published without also publishing her answers thereto in the article.” The Tears and Terror piece did fulfill that requirement in a manner of speaking with a link to the full transcript. A link that, as an exhibit to today’s lawsuit reveals, had Rooney responding “I don’t mean to be rude, but I can’t believe that’s a serious question” when asked if she believed around 2010 that “the government was going to put some Americans into camps and execute the elderly?” 
 
 “In the Article, the THR Defendants repeated the essence of the slightly reworded false and humiliating allegations and innuendos brought to them by Charlene against Jan,” the Thursday filing in LA Superior Court states with reference to Janice Rooney’s daughter-in-law, who is also named as a defendant in the sordid multi-claim and occasional typo containing complaint. “Astonishingly, there were no allegations against Jan of abusing Mickey in either the restraining order filed on February 14, 2011, or the September 15, 2011 lawsuit filed against Chris and Christina Aber and others,” the eighth Mrs. Rooney goes on to say, mentioning the since settled 2011 action by her husband of almost four decades’ court-appointed conservator Michael Augustine against her eldest son and his spouse in the family civil war suit. 
 
 Chris Aber managed the four time Oscar nominee’s business affairs for several years before his younger brother Mark and his wife Charlene took over as Rooney’s caregivers, beginning a new stage in the obviously still ongoing bitter fight over the Babes In Arms actor’s finances, legacy and name. As a part of that fight, Janice Rooney was accused of physically abusing her husband in his latter years, something she says was a misunderstanding. 
 
 “This exemplifies the extent to which Charlene was willing to go to exact her revenge against Jan, knowing how emotionally and mentally damaging and injurious it would be’ for her,” the extremely dense 28-page complaint adds of the material allegedly provided to the THR journos by Rooney’s daughter-in-law. “It also exemplifies the lengths to which the THR Defendants would go to write their tabloid Article.” 
 
 “The conduct on the parts of the THR Defendants alleged herein was done by these defendants with knowledge of Jan’s advance age, and her frail and vulnerable physical and emotional condition, as well as the sensitive nature of the subject matter, all of which they, themselves, acknowledged, “ the suit says of a supposedly months in the making piece that Mrs. Rooney claims went to print mere weeks after she first spoke to THR. “Despite this knowledge, however, the THR Defendants nonetheless engaged in the conduct alleged herein, whereby they took advantage of Jan’s vulnerability and frail condition, and threatened and coerced her, for their own personal gain.” 
 
 Though he showed up on-screen several times in his final years, the extremely fragile Rooney last prolonged public appearances was in 2011 when he testified before Congress to say he had “suffered silently” for years as a victim of elder abuse. A 2013 $2.8 million stipulated judgment in the actor’s favor in the case against Chris and Christina Aber remained was never received as Rooney died while insurance companies were locked in a legal battle of their own over who would pay out. 
 
 Along with THR, its trio of staffers, and Prometheus, the complaint also lists Mark Aber and Charlene Aber as defendants.
– Mickey Rooney's widow has filed an elder abuse lawsuit—against a magazine. The lawsuit, which also claims intentional infliction of emotional distress and conspiracy, was filed against the Hollywood Reporter by Janice Rooney; it also names her son from a previous marriage, Mark Aber, and his wife Charlene, among others, as defendants. As Deadline explains, the lawsuit stems from an Oct. 2015 THR article headlined, "Tears and Terror: The Disturbing Final Years of Mickey Rooney." THR interviewed Janice Rooney for the piece, but the lawsuit claims the final product was "deceiving" and took her words "out of context" in a way that was meant to portray her negatively. Mickey Rooney died in 2014 while under the care of Mark and Charlene Aber; he had previously been cared for by Mark's brother Chris until he accused Chris of elder abuse. A battle over his estate ensued after the actor's death, with Janice Rooney (who separated from her husband in 2012) and Chris Aber challenging Mickey Rooney's will, in which he left all of his assets to Mark Aber. Rooney's eight biological children also contested the will. Janice Rooney's lawsuit seems to stem from the overall family feud; in it, she accuses Charlene Aber of bringing "false and humiliating allegations and innuendos" against her to THR in order to get "revenge" against her, and in turn accuses the magazine of then essentially repeating those allegations in its article. The lawsuit notes that Mickey Rooney's lawsuit and restraining order against Chris Aber did not accuse Janice Rooney of elder abuse, but Deadline states that Janice Rooney has been accused of physically abusing her husband during the ongoing family feud (per the New York Daily News, it was Mickey Rooney's attorney who accused her); she says that's a misunderstanding.