IP Law Daily, PUBLICITY RIGHTS NEWS: Netflix played too many ‘Reindeer’ games, a new lawsuit asserts, (Jun 7, 2024)

By Matthew Hersh, J.D.

Baby Reindeer, the streaming service’s recent hit series, allegedly defamed the real-life inspiration for the show’s principal villain.

A hit series by Netflix is based on “a lie designed to attract more viewers, get more attention, to make more money, and to viciously destroy the life” of a woman ostensibly portrayed on the show, a new federal lawsuit claims. The lawsuit, brought by the Scottish woman who is widely assumed to be the person on which the show’s antagonist is based, contends that Netflix defamed her—and violated her right of publicity under California law—by falsely portraying her as a convicted criminal and sexual assaulter (Harvey v. Netflix, Inc., No. 2:24-cv-04744 (C.D. Cal. June 6, 2024)).

The lawsuit arises out of Baby Reindeer, the smash hit released by Netflix in April of this year. The black-comedy drama, created by Scottish writer and comedian Richard Gadd (who also stars in the show), tells the story of an aspiring comedian in London who is stalked and sexually assaulted by a lonely stranger. The show, which the New York Times described as “candid and disturbing” and “the good kind of heavy,” has received critical acclaim—and millions of streams.

Central to the lawsuit is a character named “Martha”—a twice convicted criminal who, in the show’s telling, spent a total of five years in prison for stalking. Among other things, Martha sexually assaults Gadd in an alley, violently attacks him in a pub, and waits outside his home every day for up to 16 hours a day. Martha is a “ticking time bomb on my life,” the show’s main character narrates. “I would leave first thing in the morning and she would be there. Then I would come back sometimes as late as 11 or 12 at night and she would still be there…. It was all catcalls and snatched glimpses, as she devoted 15, 16-hour days to a fleeting encounter.”

None of this would have been a problem if the real-life identity of “Martha” were a secret. But within days of the show’s release, followers of the show began to speculate that the character was based on Fiona Harvey, a Scottish lawyer who, according to the complaint, “bears an uncanny resemblance to ‘Martha.’” The show’s followers, who unearthed the connection between the two based on a tweet Harvey sent to Gadd in 2014, then allegedly began to bombard Harvey online with crude insults and death threats.

And there was another problem with the show, the complaint asserts—the supposedly real-life Martha is nothing like the Martha as portrayed by Netflix, the complaint alleges. The complaint acknowledges that she was once “accused of stalking a lawyer in a newspaper article.” But otherwise, the complaint asserts, the portrayal is false. Most importantly, the complaint asserts, the real-life Martha has never been convicted of a crime—and she never sexually assaulted Gadd.

The lawsuit contends that in light of the false portrayal and the online abuse she has received, Harvey suffers emotional distress, is “physically weak,” and “continues to experience anxiety, nightmares, panic attacks, shame, depression, nervousness, stomach pains, loss of appetite and fear, extreme stress and sickness.” The lawsuit asserts claims of defamation, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and violations of the right of publicity under California statutory and common law.

The Case is No. 2:24-cv-04744.

Attorneys: Allen Hyman (Law Offices of Allen Hyman) for Fiona Harvey.

Companies: Netflix, Inc.

News: PublicityRights CaliforniaNews