Tyra Banks is suing Netflix over America’s Next Top Model Doc
Tyra Banks sued Netflix for defamation on Saturday, claiming her testimony was manipulated for the streamer’s recent documentary series “America’s Next Top Model.”
Banks is suing Netflix, 89 Blocks Holdings, EverWonder Studio, Netflix Music and co-directors Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan for false lighting, implied defamation, breach of contract and false endorsement. According to the lawsuit, obtained by VarietyBanks’ attorneys claim the former “ANTM” host gave “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model” a “three and a half hour” interview, then cut it down to “approximately 16 minutes.” What was left, according to the complaint, was “reconstructed to support a false and defamatory story that had nothing to do with what she actually expressed.” It added that the “responsibility Ms. Banks took” for some of the show’s shortcomings “ended up on the cutting room floor.”
“Worse, the false narrative that the producers constructed – through selective editing, intentional omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage – included Ms. Banks knowingly allowing a contestant to be sexually assaulted on her show, exploiting that contestant’s trauma for ratings purposes, and then not even remembering it when prompted,” the complaint said. “That story about Ms. Banks is a complete fabrication – a story that Netflix has streamed to a global audience of millions.”
Netflix representatives did not immediately respond Variety‘s request for comment.
The lawsuit points to an “egregious example of the producers’ manipulation to create a false narrative” involving “ANTM” second cycle contestant Shadni Sullivan.
“One of the areas of interest surrounding ‘ANTM’ over the past two decades revolved around a night when Ms. Sullivan was drunk, had intercourse with a man in Milan and quickly confessed her infidelity to her longtime boyfriend,” the complaint explains. “In the Netflix series, Ms. Sullivan is shown describing the event as an attack – something Ms. Banks had never heard before and was not told during her interview. After withholding that information, Ms. Loushy asks Ms. Banks, ‘Do you remember the story with Shandi?’ The episode shows Mrs. Banks looking up, saying “um,” and then the screen goes black. The implication is devastating and intentional: that Tyra Banks can’t even remember the story of the woman who was attacked on her show.
The Bank’s lawyers claim the unedited “full footage” shows her nodding yes and saying, “I remember her story.”
Banks, who hosted “America’s Next Top Model” for 22 cycles beginning in 2003, is requesting a jury trial to recommend an “appropriate” amount of damages for the violation.
