Jennifer Lopez’s production company has beat a $40 million lawsuit after being sued for the 2019 film Hustlers.
What We Know:
- The lawsuit was filed by a former adult entertainer named Samantha Barbash whose life inspired Lopez’s character Ramona Vega. In January of this year, Barbash filed a federal lawsuit claiming her likeness and character were exploited and defamed in the movie. She requested $20 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages from the court. In September 2019, she told Vanity Fair she was not impressed by the film adding that she is nothing like Lopez’s portrayal of her.
- Back in 2015, a detailed article titled “The Hustlers at Scores” was published to New York Magazine. The article divulged the true story of a group of New York strippers who drugged their rich Wall Street clients and used their credit cards to run up large bills at the strip club. Barbash plead guilty to assault, conspiracy, and grand larceny for her participation in the scandal.
- In the film, Ramona creates the recipe for the drug they use and makes it in her home with Destiny, Constance Wu’s character inspired by Roselyn Keo. While she admits to using the drug concoction, she alleges the film inaccurately proposes she manufactured illegal substances in her home where she lived with her child and in doing so defamed her image.
- Nevertheless, the court found the movie did not use Barbash’s “name, portrait, or voice” and therefore they did not exactly steal from her life. A federal judge in the U.S. District Court Southern District of New York granted the dismissal of the case letting J-Lo’s production company off the hook. Court documents read, “The Defendants’ May 29, 2020 motion to dismiss is granted. The Clerk of Court shall enter judgment for the Defendants and close the case,” and were signed by District Judge Denise Cote last Tuesday.
Lopez was nominated for a Golden Globe and Screen Actors Guild award for her performance as Ramona Vega. Barbash, who says she is still a J-Lo fan regardless, wrote a book titled Underscore about her experience as well as Roselyn Keo whose book is titled The Sophisticated Hustler.
