Madison Square Garden is suing Wired for defamation over a 9 July article that claimed the venue kept a database tracking hundreds of celebrities' sexual orientation and gender identity. MSG's lawyers, in a suit filed in Manhattan court on 16 July, called the story "shockingly unethical" and accused Wired of using stolen, hacked data to "manufacture a false narrative" suggesting the company discriminates against LGBTQIA guests, insisting the opposite is true. Wired has said it stands by the reporting and will "vigorously defend" it in court.

The Wired article, headlined "Madison Square Garden Kept a List of Gay Celebrities," drew on documents leaked by the hacker group ShinyHunters after MSG Entertainment refused to pay a ransom, and named stars including Morgan Wallen, Selena Gomez, Ricky Martin and Phoebe Bridgers as being logged in a database with "risk scores" ranging from "low risk" to "DO NOT HOST." It reported that around 100 of roughly 40,000 people on the list carried an "LGBTQIA" tag whose purpose was unclear. MSG's lawsuit, which also names Wired's owner Advance Magazine Publishers and three named journalists, argues the headline and framing falsely implied discriminatory surveillance and separately criticises contributing editor Noah Shachtman over a past reporting controversy.