10 TV Scenes That Led To Massive Lawsuits
1. Portraying Prosecutor Linda Fairstein As "Racist & Unethical" - When They See Us
Ava DuVernay's fantastic 2019 mini-series When They See Us depicts the case of the Central Park Five, where five Black and Latino youths were falsely convicted of raping and attacking a white woman in Central Park in 1989, before having their verdicts overturned years later.
In the series, Felicity Huffman portrays Linda Fairstein, a lawyer who oversaw the prosecution in the case.
In many scenes, the show depicts Fairstein as unwaveringly committed to sending the young men down for the crime, even in the face of evidence to the contrary.
Fairstein is also shown referring to the defendants as "animals" and "little thugs," and her characterisation in the show implies a racially motivated component to the convictions.
The blowback was significant for Fairstein, who shortly after the series' release was dropped by her publisher, E.P. Dutton, asked to resign from several non-profit organisations, and pressured to resign from the Board of Trustees of Vassar College.
In March 2020, Fairstein filed a lawsuit against Netflix, DuVernay, and writer Attica Locke for defamation, and this past summer, the District Court declared that Fairstein's suit could proceed to trial in the near-future.