‘Hustlers’ inspiration sues Jennifer Lopez’s company for $40m
Samantha Barbash says her likeness and story was used without her permission
Jennifer Lopez’s production company is being sued for $40 million by the woman whose story inspired the movie’s Ramona character.
Samantha Barbash is alleging Lopez’s Nuyorican Productions used her likeness and story without her permission and defamed her in the movie that resulted, TMZ reported on Tuesday. Barbash reportedly says in the suit that she was approached repeatedly for her consent but did not give it.
‘Hustlers’ was written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, who adapted the story from a 2015 New York magazine article that included the real-life Barbash.
The movie tells the loosely fictionalised story of strippers, led by Lopez’s Ramona, who go rogue after the 2008 financial crisis. The strippers con wealthy clients, teasing and drugging them and stealing thousands of dollars the men are unlikely to miss the next morning.
Barbash told TMZ in September that Lopez never consulted with her about how to play the Ramona character.
In the suit, TMZ said, Barbash says a scene that shows Ramona “using and manufacturing illegal substances in her home where she lived with her child” is untrue and offensive.
Barbash reportedly is asking for $20 million in punitive damages and $20 million in compensatory — and wants the company to turn over every copy of the movie, which made $157 million worldwide.
Lopez told Los Angeles Times in September that the strippers in the story were simply women who wanted to have control over their own destinies.
“But their focus on money, especially my character Ramona’s, sent them down a slippery slope,” Lopez said. “Did she end up being any different than the powerful people she was trying to hustle? That’s for the audience to decide.”