“Baby reindeer”
Netflix
Netflix has been sued over its depiction of a woman portrayed as a stalker in Richard Gadd’s film Reindeer baby.
In a lawsuit filed Thursday in federal court in California, Fiona Harvey, who claims to be the inspiration behind Jessica Gunning’s Martha, accuses Netflix of defaming her through statements in the show that she is a twice-convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison. Charged with sexual assault. The streamers and showrunners “told these lies, and they never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories make money,” the complaint said.
The lawsuit, which seeks injunctive relief, seeks at least $120 million, including the carrier’s profits from the series. He brings claims for defamation, negligence, and violations of the Right of Publicity Law.
Reindeer baby Gadd’s film follows Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian who meets Martha at the bar where he works. It is then revealed that Marta is a dangerous serial stalker. Over the course of several years, I sent him more than 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters, and 350 hours of voicemails.
The lawsuit alleges that Netflix “did literally nothing” to confirm statements made in the series, which is presented as a true story, regarding Hurricane Harvey.
“Whether Harvey was convicted was never investigated, which is an extremely serious misrepresentation of the facts,” the complaint states. “He did nothing to understand the relationship between Gad and Harvey, if there was one. “It did nothing to determine whether the other facts, including the alleged assault or stalking, or the conviction, were accurate.”
The series depicts Martha as a convicted criminal who spent five years in prison for stalking Jade and another woman. She is also shown stalking a cop and sexually assaulting Gad.
Harvey says she has never been convicted of any crime. She denies stalking Gad or assaulting him physically or sexually.
It is worth noting that Harvey’s real name was not used in the series, which may constitute an obstacle to proving defamation.
The complaint filing comes on the heels of Netflix settling a defamation lawsuit brought by Linda Fairstein, a former prosecutor who sued over her portrayal in the film When they see us. Under the deal, the company agreed to move the disclaimer from the end of the credits to the beginning of each episode.
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