ATLANTA — In the latest exchange in the running debate over the portrayal of Atlanta Journal-Constitution reporter Kathy Scruggs in the film "Richard Jewell," Jewell's longtime lawyer Lin Wood writes on Twitter that there was "no evidence" to suggest the journalist ever traded sex for tips.
The film's implication that Scruggs, who broke the story that Atlanta Olympic bombing hero Jewell was in fact an FBI suspect back in 1996, used her sexuality to get the scoop has been a controversial flashpoint.
Activists and journalists have decried it as a sexist trope that advances an unjustified "floozy" stereotype applied to women in media - and one that, specifically, had no basis in reality with Scruggs.
The lawyer who battled the AJC on Jewell's behalf in a lawsuit for many years echoed those arguments.
"There was NO evidence to support a storyline that Ms. Scruggs traded sex for tips about Richard," Lin Wood wrote on Twitter. "We never made such a false & damning claim."
The truth, he said, was that Scrugg's boyfriend was in the Atlanta Police Department, and he told her Jewell was a focus of the FBI investigation.
"After receiving info from her boyfriend, AJC confirmed fact of investigation of Richard by contacting FBI agent in charge of media for Atlanta FBI field office," Wood wrote. "That story might not win anyone an Oscar, but it is the truth under the evidence."
The actress who portrayed Scruggs, Olivia Wilde, has defended her portrayal in public. She wrote earlier on Twitter that she felt the film was implying a pre-existing relationship between Scruggs and the FBI agent she's seen getting the tip from, and "not as a transactional exchange of sex for information."
"I do not believe sex-positivity and professionalism are mutually exclusive. Kathy Scruggs was a modern, independent woman whose personal life should not detract from her accomplishments," Wilde wrote.
AJC political reporter Greg Bluestein said on the social media platform that Wilde's statement "falls flat," saying Scruggs was portrayed as a "vapid, one-dimensional cartoon villain who blatantly traded sex for a news tip."
Wood, in his tweets, was building off Bluestein's sentiment.
Jewell was eventually exonerated, but public vilification as the bombing suspect is widely seen as having ruined his life.
"Richard Jewell" film director Clint Eastwood and the cast of the movie have rejected the AJC's objections to the film, which have included a letter from lawyers to Warner Bros. calling the depiction of Scruggs "defamatory and damaging."
RELATED: Former roommate of reporter portrayed in 'Richard Jewell' film: She wouldn't have violated ethics
“There is no disputing that Richard Jewell was an innocent man whose reputation and life were shredded by a miscarriage of justice," Warner Bros. repsonded. "It is unfortunate and the ultimate irony that the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, having been a part of the rush to judgment of Richard Jewell, is now trying to malign our filmmakers and cast."
Scruggs and the AJC's reporting, however, has been vindicated in court. The Georgia Supreme Court in 2012 unanimously upheld a dismissal of the lawsuit Wood had pursued.
"The Richard Jewell story raises a far more serious question than the impact of a false accusation on an innocent man," Wood wrote on Twitter. "Richard’s story raises the fundamental question we as a people face today - what do we seek? A society built on lies or a society founded on truth?"
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