A New York City mother of two who shared her controversial story of being abducted by aliens from her downtown apartment in an upcoming Netflix docuseries says the streaming giant ended up portraying her as a fabulist — and now she’s fighting to block the show’s release.
Linda Napolitano, who first told her story under the pseudonym Linda Cortile, has long claimed three gray bipedal beings extracted her during the wee hours of November 30, 1989, from her 12th-floor window on a blue beam of light, lifting her onto a reddish-orange spacecraft that quickly sped off toward the Brooklyn Bridge.
Late artist-turned-UFO investigator Budd Hopkins championed Napolitano’s story in the 1997 book Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge Abduction, generating widespread interest and, naturally, some skepticism. Hopkins said he became further convinced Napolitano was telling the truth after he received a letter from two bodyguards who said they had been nearby protecting an unnamed “world leader” when they saw a woman floating through the night sky into an alien spacecraft. More than 20 other witnesses claimed that they, too, witnessed Napolitano’s purported abduction.
Now, Napolitano, 77, is trying to block Netflix from releasing its take on the supposed incident, The Manhattan Alien Abduction, set to premiere on Wednesday, claiming it presents “a tale of skepticism” and an examination of Napolitano’s “pulling the wool over [Hopkins’s] eyes,” rather than a credulous recitation of her claims, according to an eyepopping lawsuit obtained by The Independent.
“A woman claims to have been abducted from her bedroom in Manhattan,” a Netflix promo reads. “This docuseries explores whether it was an elaborate hoax — or proof of alien life.”
In an email, an appreciative Napolitano seemed eager to provide further details of the situation but said, “Apparently, my attorney doesn’t want me to comment,” and provided his email and phone number.
Reached by phone on Tuesday, attorney Robert Young told The Independent that Napolitano was “egregiously deceived,” and would never have participated in the production if she knew how it would ultimately turn out.
“So, we’ll see,” Young said. “Litigation is a long war, many battles, and I have every confidence that we will eventually prevail.”
Netflix did not respond to requests for comment.
Napolitano, her complaint alleges, was defamed onscreen by Hopkins’ late ex-wife, who she alleges is an “embittered, alcoholic ex-wife hell bent on revenge against her husband.”
This mini-series was the ex’s “last dying act of retribution to get even with her ex-husband, rather than exhibit the actual truth as investigated and written about… in Witnessed,” according to the complaint, which was filed Monday in New York State Supreme Court.
Hopkins’s ex was said to have been bothered by her husband’s “failure to heed discrediting elements” of Napolitano’s story. In 2011, Hopkins’s ex-wife published an article debunking the idea of alien abductions and lambasted his research methodology. To that end, psychiatrists who have studied the phenomenon say there are numerous reasons people might believe they were abducted by aliens, such as those suffering from Fantasy Prone Personality disorder, or sexual assault survivors creating so-called screen memories to block out the trauma of what they endured.
The London-based producers of the film, Napolitano’s complaint argues, assured her that they were planning to tell “the truthful story of the abduction of Linda,” as laid out in the pages of Hopkins’s book. This, according to the complaint, led Napolitano, who says she had long been reluctant to appear on film, to believe her version of events “would, in fact, finally be presented.”
However, Napolitano insists, she was misled from the get-go. The producers went forward with a different version of what she agreed to, instead setting up Hopkins’s ex as “an expert ‘skeptic’ in this field.” Her questioning of Napolitano’s account served only to “cast aspersions” on her, with “scripted dialogue” supporting what she says amounted to a false narrative, the complaint states, taking further aim at the “unflattering and denigrating” costumes Napolitano was given to wear onscreen.
Hopkins’s ex-wife, according to Napolitano’s complaint, provided the filmmakers with his personal papers, notes, and videos about her supposed abduction, but also “forged a letter… wherein she asserted [Napolitano] said the entire incident was a hoax.” But Napolitano alleges that Hopkins’s ex, who died in 2023, “stole” the materials he had about her case after the two separated but were still living in the same home. (The two divorced in 2006.)
Napolitano says she never would have participated in the project had she known the producers would be relying upon “false representations” of what she insists happened to her, and that they preyed upon her naivete about moviemaking to get her to cooperate. She didn’t realize anything was amiss until an associate attended a mid-September screening of the miniseries in the UK, the complaint states.
Among other things, Napolitano’s complaint takes issue with her being shown “in a grotesque and unusual fashion, in unflattering clothes that were not her own style of dress, making her up to appear old and haggard, and having her hair set in an unusual fashion not her own, thus all done to her not appearing as her own self, but as a caricature, an almost cartoonish-like character.” She claims she was forced to read from a script, and made out to be a liar, based on the confession she now insists she never made.
In her complaint, Napolitano argues she was set up as a “villain for purposes of controversy and conflict,” supporting a narrative she says will “subject her to shame and ridicule and destroy her reputation as an honest and decent person who experienced the abduction and only agreed to have this documentary of her experience be truthfully told… for the very first time.”
Napolitano is claiming defamation and fraud, with punitive and exemplary damages to be determined in court. She insists the final result was “patently false,” and that the producers never intended on “present[ing] a documentary ‘based upon a true story.’” In all, Napolitano’s complaint claims, their conduct was “reckless, fraudulent, oppressive, and despicable,” and if the miniseries is released, “no compensation” could possibly undo the reputational damage she would suffer.
Napolitano is demanding a judge issue a restraining order to block Netlifx from airing The Manhattan Alien Abduction, making any public comments or issuing any press releases as to why it was canceled, or posting any explanations to social media. Napolitano’s attorneys said a decision is expected on Wednesday.
