SOPHIA ROOKSBERRY
Staff Writer
On July 27, Johnson & Johnson published a press release announcing a proposed resolution to 15 years of litigation. On the same day, Sharyn Rothstein’s Best for Baby, a satirical retelling of these scandalous years, entered the final week of its world premiere.
Johnson & Johnson committed $5.5 billion to the compensation of claimants who trace their ovarian cancer to the talc-based baby powder the company kept on the shelves until 2023. Rothstein’s script currently ends around the time Johnson & Johnson switched to a cornstarch-based baby powder, and Rothstein said it is too soon to tell whether or not this legal development will affect the ending.
“Who knows what’s going to happen with this settlement?” Rothstein said. “… In order for the settlement to go through, I think they need the vast majority of claimants to agree to it, [and] I haven’t seen anything that says that agreement has been reached yet, so … it feels like a major development, but let’s wait and see what happens.”
The ending of Rothstein’s play also tackles the Texas two-step that Johnson & Johnson attempted in 2021. Through this maneuver, a company separates into two entities, one retaining the company’s assets and the other absorbing the company’s liabilities. Then, the latter files for bankruptcy while the former carries on business proceedings as usual.
“[The settlement] does seem to suggest that Johnson & Johnson is moving away from trying the Texas two-step again, but they tried it three times, so I think that part of my play is still pretty valid, and whether or not the Texas two-step itself is a legal maneuver is still an open question,” Rothstein said. “The Supreme Court, as recently as June, decided not to hear a case about the Texas two-step, but they also didn’t say that it was illegal, so it’s still this open question out there.”
Rothstein had previously described her play as a “call to action for people to speak up and fight … on behalf of these claimants.” While Rothstein still maintains the need for these acts of advocacy, she believes if this settlement has merit, the messaging behind Best for Baby will shift to focus mostly on the Texas two-step itself.
“No matter what happens with the Johnson & Johnson case, we now know we have this incredibly … dangerous bankruptcy maneuver out there, and there has been a bipartisan effort in the Senate to introduce legislation to fight it and it has kind of gone nowhere,” Rothstein said. “That is still a very real danger that is going to, if it proves to be legal, shield corporations from culpability in a really damaging way for our society.”
Rothstein said she will be keeping a close eye on the company as details continue to unfold, and encourages others to do the same.
“I take the settlement announcement with a grain of salt, because there have been a lot of them, and also there’s still huge litigation happening in the U.K. over Johnson & Johnson, so it’s certainly by no means the end of this story,” Rothstein said. “I certainly hope it can bring some bit of justice and/or relief to all of these claimants, but I will still be very wary of all of the press releases I read.”
