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Los Angeles - John Travolta may be the subject of a $2 million assault and sexual battery lawsuit, but there is little likelihood the allegations will ruin the Hollywood star's career, celebrity image experts said on Friday.
Travolta, 58, has battled negative headlines all week after two unidentified male masseurs filed a lawsuit saying the actor sexually assaulted them in two separate incidents during private massages.
A third man, cruise ship worker Fabian Zanzi, said on a Chilean TV show "Primer Plano" that Travolta offered him $12 000 to have sex while on a cruise in 2009.
Travolta's lawyer have called the claims absurd and ridiculous and say all three men are trying to get their "15 minutes of fame".
On Friday celebrity website Radaronline.com reported that the first accuser, known only as John Doe No 1, now claims to have been wrong about the date - January 16, 2012 - of the alleged assault.
The lawyer for John Doe No 1 said he no longer represents the man, although he is staying with the second accuser, John Doe No 2.
Tiger Woods, Hugh Grant, Rob Lowe and Kim Kardashian, among others, have all been mired in sex scandals. As was the case with them, Travolta's career should survive, the experts said.
"People tend to bond and create a certain affinity with certain actors, and who they like and what they like is rarely related to the actor's tabloid images. It's related to their body of work and how cool their fans think they are," said Howard Bragman, a veteran celebrity publicist and vice chairperson of Reputation.com.
Bragman said Travolta and his representatives have done a good job of disproving and deflecting the claims.
"None of us were there and none of us knows what happened, but I've seen a lot of phony lawsuits against celebrities ... . So I look at these with a very cynical eye," Bragman said.
