Eastwood Beats Bad Rap

Clint Eastwood must be feeling lucky right now.

According to AP, the 74-year-old director of "Mystic River" has settled a $10 million libel lawsuit, filed in San Jose federal court in 2002, against Patrick McGilligan and his publisher St. Martin's Press.

The suit claimed that McGilligan's unauthorized biography, "Clint: The Life and Legend," included false and defamatory statements that Eastwood had beaten his first wife.

In a tape-recorded interview, recounted in the book, a former associate of Eastwood's is quoted as saying the Oscar-winning director "cold-cocked" and "decked" his ex-wife, Maggie, whom he divorced in 1980.

Both McGilligan and St. Martin's Press will remove from the book the references to Eastwood beating his wife, as well as other statements Eastwood claims were false and defamatory. Due to a confidentiality agreement, the other terms of the settlement weren't revealed.

The associate has since retracted his account in a sworn affidavit.