Former Vanity Fair photo editor Rachel Williams is suing Netflix for defamation in the series “Inventing Anna”, which is up for three Emmys. In the plot, she is friends with Anna Delvey Sorokin, who tricked Manhattan’s elite and made everyone believe she was an international heiress.
In the lawsuit, the former Vanity Fair employee – who was cheated out of $62,000 by the fake millionaire – says she was portrayed in a negative light, according to Vanity Fair. “[A Netflix] made a deliberate decision for dramatic purposes to show Williams doing or saying things on the show that portray her as a greedy, snobbish, disloyal, dishonest, cowardly, manipulative, and opportunistic person.”
The complaint notes that Williams, one of the main characters in the Delvey saga, had a full name, employer and hometown that remain the same in the series and in real life. Netflix gave fictitious names and biographical details for “Sorokin’s business lawyer, her boyfriend and the wealthy socialite and fashion designer”.
Williams’ attorney, Alexander Rufus-Isaacs, said this was a key factor in the defamation suit. “We presented the case because not only did Netflix include false facts in ‘Making Anna’ to make Rachel look like a horrible person, but also because they used her real name and biographical details for the character.”
Rufus-Isaacs says the stream should have given Williams’ character a fictitious name so that no one would associate her with her. According to him, her reputation as a client was devastated because viewers believed they were watching how the real Rachel behaved.
“The abuse she received was truly horrific. This lawsuit is intended to vindicate her reputation and remind creators that they cannot create hateful figures and name them after real people,” the lawyer said.
Williams wrote about her experiences with ex-best friend Delvey in 2018 for Vanity Fair and later in a book, “My Friend Anna”. The Netflix series is an adaptation of journalist Jessica Pressler’s text for New York magazine, which was published after Williams’ article.
In a statement to Deadline, the lawyer for the former Vanity Fair editor suggested that Netflix did not change Williams’ biographical details because she chose to sell the story to HBO, which dropped the project. The rights were given to the former editor of Vanity Fair.
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