Courts

The Newest Reindeer Game? A $170M Defamation Suit

What's in a name? SO much if you keep everything else the same.

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989133The biggest follow-up to Baby Reindeer may not be a second season, but a multimillion-dollar defamation lawsuit. For an unknown reason, the show decided to deviate from the boiler plate “Based on a true story” or even a classic “All characters and events in this show — even those based on real people — are entirely fictional. All celebrity voices are impersonated…poorly,” opting instead for a veracity-leaning “This is a true story.” They better hope those truths hold up in court. From the Hollywood Reporter:

[Fiona] Harvey is taking legal action against the streaming platform. She filed a whopping $170 million lawsuit against the streamer for defamation, negligence and privacy violations.

“I have no doubt that the character of ‘Martha’ in Baby Reindeer was intended to be a portrayal of me,” Harvey said in a statement obtained by The Hollywood Reporter via her lawyer. “The problem for Richard Gadd and now for Netflix is that Baby Reindeer is not a true story at all. I am not a ‘convicted stalker.’ I have never been charged with any crime. … Nobody ever approached me for any comment on the accuracy of Baby Reindeer or the very serious and damaging allegation that I am a convicted criminal, with a serious criminal record, who has spent time in prison. Nobody ever asked for my permission to present me in this way or to use my image at all.”

Netflix intends to stick by Gadd’s side in the upcoming litigation. For what it’s worth, Gadd did go out of his way to request his fans to not find Martha’s real-life analog. To that end, he elaborated that if hadn’t, he would have framed the show as a documentary instead of the… well, once you open the show with “This is a true story,” I’m not really sure what else you can frame it as. True to form, fans of the show sleuthed out who “Martha” was based on Gadd’s tweet history. You can read the compilation of those tweets here.

Will the thin protection of a name change be enough to protect Netflix from this multimillion-dollar lawsuit? It’s too early to tell, but I wouldn’t be counting on a second season of Baby Reindeer until this resolves. If it does drop, expect “Martha” to have an unexplained change in her character arc. Or at least a different accent.

“Netflix, Bring It On”: Fiona Harvey’s Lawyer on How He Can Win the ‘Baby Reindeer’ Battle (Exclusive) [Hollywood Reporter]

Chris Williams became a social media manager and assistant editor for Above the Law in June 2021. Prior to joining the staff, he moonlighted as a minor Memelord™ in the Facebook group Law School Memes for Edgy T14s.  He endured Missouri long enough to graduate from Washington University in St. Louis School of Law. He is a former boatbuilder who cannot swim, a published author on critical race theory, philosophy, and humor, and has a love for cycling that occasionally annoys his peers. You can reach him by email at [email protected] and by tweet at @WritesForRent.

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