Hustlers has become STX's most successful film, pulling in the most money on the opening weekend than any other movie the entertainment company has backed. The story of the group of strippers that band together to get back at their Wall Street clients is based on a true story that happened to ring leader Samantha Barbash and according to Variety, she's suing to get her cut.
According to the publication, Samantha pleaded guilty in 2017 to drugging her clients and stealing their credit cards which gave her five years on probation. Samantha's story had been published in New York Magazine and then picked up as a movie script with Jennifer Lopez playing her part. Samantha's attorney Bruno Gioffre send STX a letter protesting his client's “flagrant violation of her rights,” and wanted a deal to be made within 10 days. STX responded with the following:
“We will defend our right to tell factually based stories based on the public record and look forward to resolving this matter before a judge."
A similar case took place in 2017 when a woman sued FX Networks and Ryan Murphy for depicting her in a miniseries titled Feud. The woman lost the case and the court response was the following:
“Books, films, plays and television shows often portray real people. Whether a person portrayed in one of these expressive works is a world-renowned film star — ‘a living legend’ — or a person no one knows, she or he does not own history. Nor does she or he have the legal right to control, dictate, approve, disapprove, or veto the creator’s portrayal of actual people.”
Good luck to Samantha.