This article contains discussion of sexual assault.
Four months on from the release of the explosive documentary Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model, Tyra Banks has taken legal action against Netflix over her portrayal within the three-part series.
Banks, who created the reality show and served as host and executive producer, has filed a lawsuit against the streaming service and production companies, and is seeking an "appropriate" amount in damages to her reputation (via People).
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The lawsuit claims that Banks was interviewed for Reality Check for over 3 hours, and that the 16 minutes used in the final product were "stripped of context and reassembled to support a false and defamatory narrative unrelated to what she actually expressed".
Specifically, the filing alleges that the edit made out that Tyra was unaware of what happened to Shandi Sullivan during production of the show in Italy. The former contestant described what happened to her as sexual assault.
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Banks' lawsuit claims: "The implication is devastating and deliberate: that Tyra Banks cannot even remember the story of the woman who was assaulted on her show. But that was false. The full footage of Ms Banks' interview reveals two things that the producers cut out and did not show viewers in Episode 1: before the upward glance, Ms Banks nods - affirmatively, unmistakably - and immediately says, 'I do remember her story'.
"By carving the nod out of the middle of the sequence and cutting off Ms Banks' comment at the end, the producers ensured that viewers would see only the lie and not the truth."
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Furthermore, Banks' lawsuit claims that Reality Check presented Banks shutting down production after learning of a separate incident of sexual misconduct as "hypothetical" rather than something that actually happened.
Beyond that, the filing alleges that Banks had been in regular contact with Miss J Alexander and, had she been aware of Alexander stating in his own interview that they hadn't spoken, she would have shown texts between them on camera.
Banks states that she has experienced "significant mental anguish" following the documentary's release, as well as "loss of future business opportunities [and] loss of business income", which she is seeking a to-be-determined amount of financial compensation for.
Digital Spy has reached out to Netflix for comment.
At the time of writing, Netflix and the other named parties - EverWonder Studio, Wise Child Studio, Sullivan, Mor Loushy and Daniel Sivan - have not responded to the lawsuit.
Reality Check: Inside America's Next Top Model is available to stream on Netflix.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
