A British girl who claims she was the inspiration for the stalker within the smash Netflix hit “Baby Reindeer” sued the streamer Thursday, demanding $170 million in damages.
Fiona Harvey has recognized herself because the real-life “Martha,” the delusional, violent and abusive girl on the middle of Richard Gadd’s international phenomenon, which claims in its opening episode to be “a true story.”
“The above quote… is the biggest lie in television history,” the lawsuit, filed in California, says.
“It is a lie told by Netflix and the show’s creator, Richard Gadd, out of greed and lust for fame; a lie designed to attract more viewers, get more attention, to make more money, and to viciously destroy the life of Plaintiff, Fiona Harvey.”
The seven-episode sequence premiered on Netflix in April and rapidly grew to become an enormous hit.
The present, primarily based on Gadd’s one-man play, follows a fictionalized model of the creator who meets a lady within the pub the place he works.
What unspools over the next episodes is a deeply disturbing years-long ordeal for Gadd by which Martha sends hundreds of emails, texts and voice messages as she harasses him, his girlfriend and his household.
Martha, who the present claims to have been beforehand convicted for stalking a lawyer, can also be proven to sexually assault Gadd.
The British author and performer has instructed journalists that he modified particulars about Martha in an effort to guard her id, however armchair detectives rapidly tracked her down and started contacting her on social media.
After being outed, Harvey appeared on British tv, denying that she had bombarded Gadd with messages, or that she had attacked him or his girlfriend.
“The lies that Defendants told about Harvey to over 50 million people worldwide include that Harvey is a twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison, and that Harvey sexually assaulted Gadd,” the go well with says.
“Defendants instructed these lies, and by no means stopped, as a result of it was a greater story than the reality, and higher tales made cash.
“And Netflix, a multi-national billion dollar entertainment streaming company did literally nothing to confirm the ‘true story’ that Gadd told.”
The go well with in opposition to Netflix alleges defamation, intentional infliction of emotional misery and negligence, amongst different claims, and calls for $170 million.
Netflix didn’t instantly reply to AFP request for remark.
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