Netflix Loses Bid to Dismiss Defamation Claim in ‘Baby Reindeer’ Lawsuit
A federal court has advanced the key defamation claim in a lawsuit against Netflix over its portrayal of a woman depicted as a stalker in Richard Gadd’s Baby Reindeer, while dismissing other allegations.
U.S. District Judge R. Gary Klausner on Friday found that Netflix could’ve defamed Fiona Harvey, the inspiration behind Jessica Gunning’s Martha depicted as a twice-convicted stalker sentenced to five years in prison for sexual assault, by stating that the series was “based on a true story.” Netflix may have “insisted on adding” the disclaimer despite Gadd’s concerns, the court said.
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“This suggests a reckless disregard of whether the statements in the series were false,” the order stated.
Baby Reindeer follows Gadd’s Donny Dunn, a struggling comedian who encounters Martha at the bar where he works. Martha is then revealed to be a dangerous, serial stalker. Over the course of multiple years, she’s depicted as sending him more than 41,000 emails, 744 tweets, 100 pages of letters and 350 hours of voicemails.
In June, Harvey brought a lawsuit in California federal court against Netflix seeking at least $170 million, including the company’s profits from the series.
Netflix moved to dismiss the lawsuit under California’s anti-SLAPP law, which allows for the early dismissal of lawsuits intended to chill free speech. The court, however, found that Harvey has a “probability of prevailing” on allegations over defamation.
Claims for negligence, right of publicity and punitive damages were dismissed, while a claim for intentional infliction of emotional distress was allowed to proceed.
The series depicts Martha as a convicted criminal who spent five years in prison for stalking Gadd and another woman. She’s also shown to stalk a policeman and sexually assault Gadd. Harvey, whose real name wasn’t used in the series, has maintained that she’s never been convicted of any crime.
The lawsuit alleged Netflix “did literally nothing” to confirm statements in the series, which is represented as a true story, concerning Harvey.
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