‘Baby Reindeer’s Real-Life Martha Pursues Netflix With $170M Defamation & Negligence Suit

https://deadline.com/2024/06/baby-reindeer-lawsuit-netflix-real-life-martha-1235961104/

10 comments

  1. “Sometimes you create such a web of lies that you almost forget what you started running from in the first place.”

    That quote from Donny (Richard Gadd) in the second episode of Baby Reindeer just might be on the mind of Netflix on Thursday after the streamer was hit with a $170 million defamation and negligence lawsuit over the widely watched black comedy.

    “This is an action by Plaintiff Fiona Harvey (“Harvey”) against Defendants Netflix, Inc. and Netflix Worldwide Entertainment (collectively “Netflix”), for defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence, gross negligence, and violations of Harvey’s right of publicity, arising out of the brutal lies Defendants told about her in the television series, Baby Reindeer,” reads the long-promised suit filed today in federal court in Los Angeles.

    Sold as a “true story,” Baby Reindeer, which launched on the streamer April 11, is the raw account of Gadd’s frustrated comedian character’s experience with an alleged stalker. Jessica Gunning stars as that alleged stalker, Martha, who the world learned last month is Harvey, a Scottish lawyer.

    “The lies that Defendants told about Harvey to over 50 million people worldwide include that Harvey is a twice convicted stalker who was sentenced to five years in prison, and that Harvey sexually assaulted Gadd. Defendants told these lies, and never stopped, because it was a better story than the truth, and better stories made money,” the heavily illustrated 34-page complaint adds.

    “As a result of Defendants’ lies, malfeasance and utterly reckless misconduct, Harvey’s life had been ruined. Simply, Netflix and Gadd destroyed her reputation, her character and her life.”

    Oddly, for all the times he is mentioned in the suit, Gadd himself is not a defendant here, it seems.

    Netflix did not respond to Deadline’s request for comment on the legal action, which Harvey has been saying for weeks she intended to file. If and when the streamer does have something to say, this post will be updated.

    Netflix may be taking a beat right now to determine how much all this is truly going to cost it. Aiming for injunctive relief, Harvey wants the streamer to pay handsomely for what she sees as its sins. She is seeing more than $170 million, actually, per the breakdown from the jury-trial-seeking filing.

    “I find it horrifying, misogynistic,” Harvey told Piers Morgan in May of the reaction she has experienced in the wake of the series. “Some of the death threats have been really terrible online …You know, it’s been absolutely horrendous.”

    Snagging around 60 million views in its first month on Netflix, Baby Reindeer won the Breakthrough Limited Series award this week at the Gotham TV Awards. Either for or against the series, now the awards may be handed out in court.

  2. Didn’t she send him something like 5000 texts 1000+ emails 4000+ phone calls and various letters over the course of filming?

  5. Well they’ll have enough material for a second season. That’s for sure.

  6. I’m happy to say that I have not watched reindeer baby not have I any knowledge of any reindeer past present or future!

  7. I think she gets paid which is the worst outcome that can come out of making a tv show about a criminal.

  8. I assume she’s representing herself as an esteemed lawyer

  9. Knew this was coming when she sued that dipshit Piers Morgan for defamation after he gave her the platform and she proceeded to show that ‘yep, the bitch be cray cray’ by just letting her talk.

    Seriously, I hate Piers but the highlights have to be seen to be believed.

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