Hustlers has turned into a surprise box office success and an even bigger surprise as a critical darling. The inspired by true events story, which follows a ring of strippers who drugged their clients and took their credit cards, has resonated with fans but one person who isn’t a fan is Samantha Barbash, the real-life inspiration for Ramona, played by Jennifer Lopez in the film.
Barbash’s attorney, Bruno Gioffre, sent a letter to STX on Monday protesting the “flagrant violation of her rights,” and threatening to sue if a deal isn’t worked out within 10 days. Barbash was the ringleader of the stripper ring and after pleading guilty in 2017, was sentenced to five years of probation. The story of the fraud ring was written about in New York Magazine by Jessica Pressler in 2015 and that became the inspiration for Hustlers.
STX released a statement soon after Barbash’s attorney made the case public and it looks like they feel like they have nothing to worry about:
“We will defend our right to tell factually based stories based on the public record and look forward to resolving this matter before a judge.”
Barbash told “TMZ” last week that she was defamed by the film’s portrayal of her character’s drug use. She said she rejected the producers’ offer for the rights to her story, saying it was less than the cost of a Hermes bag. This seems to be more of a case of seeing how well the film is doing and feeling a little upset about rejecting an initial piece of the pie. Roselyn “Rosie” Keo, the real-life inspiration for Constance Wu’s Destiny/Dorothy, worked with the film, attended its premieres and released a memoir alongside the release date of the film. She doesn’t seem to take any issues with how she or others were depicted in the film and has spoken of its accuracy on several occasions.
Samantha Barbash may not have a leg to stand on if past cases are to to be considered. In 2017 when Olivia de Havilland sued FX Networks over her depiction in the Ryan Murphy miniseries Feud, a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals issued a ringing defense of FX’s First Amendment right to make a fictional film portraying real events.
“Books, films, plays and television shows often portray real people,” the court held in that case. “Whether a person portrayed in one of these expressive works is a world-renowned film star — ‘a living legend’ — or a person no one knows, she or he does not own history. Nor does she or he have the legal right to control, dictate, approve, disapprove, or veto the creator’s portrayal of actual people.”
In 2016, the same appellate court upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by Sgt. Jeffrey Sarver, who contended that he was portrayed in The Hurt Locker without his permission. That film was based on a “Playboy” article about Sarver by screenwriter Mark Boal. The court found that the producers had a First Amendment right to “take the raw materials of life — including the stories of real individuals, ordinary or extraordinary — and transform them into art.”
