Last year it seemed barely a week could go by without a man coming forward to claim sexual assault against John Travolta. However while a series of suits by male masseurs were dropped (largely due to the fact that it was discovered that when one of the assaults was initially said to have taken place, the actor was on the other side of the country), one lived on, from a former cruise ship employee who said Travolta assaulted him aboard a ship in 2009.

However now this claim has been dropped, shortly after a judge denied Travolta’s attempts to get the case put into private arbitration, rather than being dealt with in open court. The denial was a victory for the claimant, Fabian Zanzi, but shortly afterwards he dropped the lawsuit entirely. There’s been no official statement on why he decided to give up, although some have suggested it’s because he can’t afford the costs of a full trial, while others have alleged the whole thing was an attempt to get money from Travolta, and now that Zanzi’s realised he isn’t going to get a quick payment, he’s decided to drop it.

Zanzi had claimed that he was assigned to bring food to Travolta, at which point the actor asked for a neck massage. The steward agreed but said that when he reached for Travolta’s neck, the star took off his robe and forcefully hugged him. He also alleged that Travolta told that he was “Beautiful” and said, “Take me, I will take care of you, please.”

After he says he reported the incident, he claimed Travolta offered him $12,000 to keep his mouth shut, and his employers, Royal Caribbean Cruise Line, refused to do anything.

Travolta’s attorney, Marty Singer, commented to RadarOnline.com: “My client and our firm are very pleased that Mr. Zanzi has agreed to dismiss the lawsuit.”

It’s been a bit quiet on the guys-claiming-John-Travolta-wanted-to-have-sex-with-them front. Earlier this year you couldn’t move for masseurs and others launching legal actions over supposed unwanted sexual advances.

However, if Travolta was hoping the whole thing would quietly disappear, he’s going to be disappointed, as TMZ reports that former pilot Doug Gotterba claims he had a ‘steamy affair’ with the actor and he is now suing after receiving what he describes as a threatening letter from Travolta’s attorney Marty Singer. The lawyer apparently sent out the letter after reports of the affair emerged in June, with suggestions at the time that a tell-all book was on the way.

Singer apparently wrote to Gotterba saying that he was barred from talking to the media as he’d signed a non-disclosure agreement covering his time working for the movie star. The pilot, who says he worked from Travolta from 1981 to 1987, says he never signed such as an agreement. He admits there was a termination agreement that he signed, but it didn’t include anything about confidentiality.

TMZ reached out to Singer, who stands by the statement that Gotterba signed a confidentiality agreement, and that the lawsuit is ‘ludicrous’. The lawyer adds, “Mr. Gotterba obviously filed this lawsuit to get his 15 minutes of fame. We plan to get this meritless case promptly dismissed.”

As others have pointed out though, so far Singer hasn’t actually denied anything that’s been said about Travolta and Gotterba having an affair. Some have even interpreted this as a tacit coming out (although that’s quite a stretch), with the actor’s camp only saying a confidentiality agreements bans the pilot from talking about it. I wouldn’t hold a coming out party just yet, but the language Singer uses is interesting.

The last few months have seen numerous rumours and allegations emerge about John Travolta having a bit of a thing for male masseurs. However before individual masseurs came forward to make allegations there was Robert Randolph’s self-published book, You’ll Never Spa In This Town Again and a 2010 Gawker article based on Randolph’s claims.

Travolta wasn’t too impressed with someone going around saying he enjoyed gay sex in spas and bath houses, with Randolph claiming the actor liked to be watched engaging in sex with various men. This causes Travolta’s pitbull lawyer, Marty Singer, to speak out against the claims and send Gawker a cease-and-desist letter, which alleged that Randolph was an unreliable source in part due to allegations of mental issues.

Randolph sued for defamation, saying the allegations  harmed his reputation with false statements and hurt the sales of his book. However now a judge has thrown the lawsuit out, more on a technicality than on a finding of fact. The judge found the letter Singer sent to have gone out ahead of planned legal action and is therefore privileged and can’t be used to sue someone in court. It was also noted that rather than hurting sales of the book, Singer’s lawsuit may well have helped it sell far more copies than it would done on its own, which is probably true.

Indeed it’s one of the odd things about the way the tenacious Singer operates, in that in so vociferously denying any and all claims, he has a tendency to draw more attention to them than they would othersie have had.