The woman who inspired Jennifer Lopez’s Hustlers character is suing the actress’ production company.
Hustlers, which was written and directed by Lorene Scafaria, is based on New York magazine’s 2015 article “The Hustlers at Scores” by Jessica Pressler.
The plot follows a crew of strippers in New York City who begin to embezzle money by drugging stock traders and CEOs who visit their club.
The film has been a huge hit at the box office since it’s release, and now Samantha Barbash, who inspired the film’s Ramona character, is demanding money from the movie’s producers.
According to court documents obtained by The Blast, J.Lo’s production company, Nuyorican Productions, STX Entertainment, Gloria Sanchez Productions and Pole Sisters LLC is being sued for $40 million dollars.
Samantha has allegedly claimed that film producers approached her before production to “obtain a consent waiver form” for the production of the film and their “ultimate portrayal” of her.
The former stripper has maintained that she refused to sign off on the consent, or waive her privacy rights.
Court documents also claim, “While the amount of accurate factual details presented within the film are sufficient to unequivocally identify JLO’s character as Ms. Barbash, Defendants made statements and created scenes of and concerning Ms. Barbash in a grossly irresponsible manner.”
On top of suing the film’s producers, Samantha has also demanded an order requiring producers to “turn over all copies of the movie.”
The news comes months after Samantha expressed her issues with the movie during a chat with TMZ back in September.
She accused the film’s producers of allegedly “stealing” her story, and took a pop at J.Lo too.
Samantha slammed Jennifer for not getting in touch with her, and accused her of defaming her character.
