Former Stripper Sues Jennifer Lopez’s Production Company for $20 Million
The former stripper who inspired Jennifer Lopez’s character in Hustlers, Samantha Barbash, is suing J.Lo’s production company for $20 million.
Apparently, Samantha’s history of drugging and robbing patrons inspired the movie and now her lawyers claim J.Lo’s company Nuyorican Productions “exploited” her likeness in the film without her permission.
Samantha refused to sign consent waivers offered to her by the filmmakers, yet they went ahead and used her likeness anyway, a lawsuit claims according to Page Six.
“The film depicts Ms. Barbash, played by Jennifer Lopez (“JLO”) as the ringleader of a group of adult dancers who drugged their patrons and stole exuberant amounts of money from them while in their incapacitated state,” the lawsuit read. “Defendants did not take caution to protect the rights of Ms. Barbash by creating a fictionalized character, or by creating a composite of characters to render JLO’s character a new fictitious one; rather they engaged in a systematic effort to make it well-known that JLO was playing Ms. Barbash.”
We’ll see how this plays out. To be honest, it makes us want to go see the movie even more, right?