Tyra Banks has filed a defamation lawsuit in opposition to Netflix and the administrators of its docuseries “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model,” alleging that the producers stripped down hours of interview footage to assemble a false narrative.
In the lawsuit filed Saturday in Los Angeles federal courtroom, the mannequin who created and hosted “America’s Next Top Model” mentioned she was interviewed for 3 ½ hours, throughout which she took duty for among the present’s controversial choices. Those interviews had been edited right down to 16 minutes and manipulated “to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed,” the lawsuit mentioned.
“The accountability Ms. Banks took ended up on the cutting room floor. It was there, but viewers were never given the opportunity to see it,” her legal professionals wrote.
Banks is in search of damages in her lawsuit in opposition to Netflix, the administrators Daniel Sivan and Mor Loushy and EverWonder Studio. She’s additionally in search of an injunction barring the usage of her picture in reference to the docuseries’ soundtrack, launched as an album.
Emails in search of feedback had been despatched Sunday to the defendants’ representatives.
“America’s Next Top Model” launched in 2003 and ran for twenty-four seasons. In latest years, the fact competitors collection has undergone a essential reevaluation over accusations of physique shaming, manipulation of contestants and problematic photoshoots. Banks has beforehand addressed these criticisms, acknowledging “the insensitivity of past ANTM moments” and “some really off choices.”
The lawsuit contends that the producers of the Netflix docuseries used “selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage” to formulate a story that Banks allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on the present, used the contestant’s trauma to drum up rankings after which could not keep in mind it when requested through the interviews.
“Defendants edited the Netflix Series to make it appear that Ms. Banks knew she was being asked about a sexual assault and was intentionally trying to evade the topic,” the lawsuit said, contending that Banks hadn’t been informed — or requested — concerning the assault through the interview.
Banks’ legal professionals wrote that she wasn’t permitted to evaluation the docuseries till a day earlier than its Feb. 16 launch. According to the lawsuit, she had not been contacted for fact-checking after her interviews, and was not given a possibility to reply to accusations from different members. Other judges from the present, together with one her legal professionals contend holds a grudge in opposition to Banks, consulted on the docuseries.
“Had Ms. Banks known these individuals were so deeply involved in the formulation of the Netflix Series, also serving as consultants shaping the editorial direction, and that she had been excluded from such a role, it would have raised a red flag,” the lawsuit learn. “She would have known she was being set up. She would not have participated.”
Banks’ legal professionals reached out to Netflix in March to request entry to the total footage of her interviews. Netflix and EverWonder denied that request, in accordance with the lawsuit. Since the docuseries’ launch, public response has been “swift, harsh, and directed squarely at Ms. Banks” — even SMiZE & DREAM, her ice cream store in Sydney, Australia, has been topic to evaluation bombing on Google, the lawsuit learn.
The Associated Press despatched an electronic mail in search of additional element from Banks’ legal professionals and representatives on Sunday.
“Every other conversation about ANTM’s legacy — including the candid reflection Ms. Banks came prepared to have — is now drowned out by an accusation she was never given the chance to answer,” her legal professionals wrote. “This lawsuit is that answer — particularly after her efforts to resolve the matter directly with Netflix and the producers were refused.”
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