If you thought the Top Model world couldn’t get any more scandalous, Tyra Banks has sued Netflix over its Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model docuseries.
On Saturday (US Time), the former America’s Next Top Model host filed a lawsuit against the streaming giant, 89 Blocks Holdings, EverWonder Studio, Netflix Music, and co-directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan, claiming her interview for the docuseries was edited to support a false narrative.
According to the lawsuit, obtained by PEOPLE Magazine, Banks’ attorney claimed she participated in a “three-and-a-half-hour” interview that was then cut down to “about 16 minutes”.
The suit claimed the footage used was “reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed”.
“Tyra Banks participated in the Netflix documentary series America’s Next Top Model (‘ANTM’) because she believed viewers deserved a candid conversation about the show’s legacy — its successes and its shortcomings,” the court documents began.
“There are aspects of the show for which Ms. Banks takes accountability, and she wanted ANTM viewers to hear that from her directly.”
The lawsuit also claimed that Banks didn’t “limit the ANTM topics the interviewer could ask” and that during the lengthy interview, the reality TV host answered questions about the show’s history, and addressed criticisms of the decisions made on ANTM and how she would approach them today.
“The Netflix series Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model (the ‘Netflix Series’) was sold to viewers as a ‘documentary series,'” the suit continued.
“Netflix called it ‘the definitive, must-watch chronicle of America’s Next Top Model.’ The genre matters. Viewers of a documentary do not expect manufactured drama or constructed narratives. They expect facts. Because they were promised a documentary, that is exactly how viewers interacted with the Netflix Series.”
Banks claimed the 16 minutes of footage shown in the docuseries were “stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed” and that she took accountability for some of the most controversial moments in ANTM. However, she claimed they were edited out.
“Worse, the false narrative the producers constructed — through selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage — included that Ms. Banks knowingly allowed a contestant to be sexually assaulted on her show, exploited that contestant’s trauma for ratings, and then could not even remember it when asked,” the suit claimed.
“That narrative about Ms. Banks is a complete fabrication — one that Netflix streamed to a global audience of millions.”
One of the main points in the suit, which it claimed was an “egregious example of the producers’ manipulation to create a false narrative”, was the docuseries’ segment involving cycle two contestant Shandi Sullivan, who claimed she’d been sexually assaulted while competing on the show, Variety reported.
“One of the areas of interest about ‘ANTM’ over the last twenty years has been about an evening during which Ms. Sullivan was intoxicated, had intercourse with a man in Milan, and quickly confessed her infidelity to her longtime boyfriend,” the suit said.
“On the Netflix Series, Ms. Sullivan is shown describing the event as an assault — something Ms. Banks had never heard before and was not told during her interview. Having withheld that information, Ms. Loushy asks Ms. Banks: ‘You remember the story with Shandi?’ The episode shows Ms. Banks glance upward, say ‘um,’ and then the screen cuts to black. The implication is devastating and deliberate: that Tyra Banks cannot even remember the story of the woman who was assaulted on her show.”
Banks’ attorney claimed the “full footage” shows the host nodding yes and saying, “I do remember her story”.
Banks is requesting a jury trial to recommend an “appropriate” amount of damages she should receive.
Netflix has yet to respond publicly to the suit.
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