A Superior Court judge rejected a motion Friday to throw out comedian Dom DeLuise's lawsuit claiming his former daughter-in-law caused him emotional and financial distress when she sued him for $2 million. DeLuise is suing Brigitte DeLuise, her lawyer, Steven Zelig, and Zelig's law firm for their suit claiming the comedian, his wife, Carol, and their money managers tried to cut off his former daughter-in-law financially.

Zelig asked a judge to dismiss the lawsuit, saying DeLuise gave no evidence for his claims of emotional distress and that his lawsuit violated the state's anti-SLAPP — Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation — law, which is designed to prevent the silencing of critics by burdening them with legal costs.

Judge Judith C. Chirlin disagreed.

"I find that there were sufficient grounds for the lawsuit to have been filed," she said. "There is a likelihood of it prevailing on the merits."

Brigitte DeLuise dropped her lawsuit in January, but refiled it on June 23. She divorced Dom DeLuise's son David DeLuise in August 2003.

Calls to Zelig and to DeLuise's attorney, Joseph Singleton, were not immediately returned.