The owner of MTV, Viacom, and former member of TLC, Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid , are embroiled in a defamation dispute that may now go before a jury.
TLC is an American girl group that were very successful in the 1990s. They had nine top-ten hits and also recorded four multi-platinum albums and back in 2013 they were the subject of a biopic titled ‘CrazySexyCool’, which was aired on Viacom’s VH1 channel.
The biopic had input from two of the surviving members: Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas. However, the third member Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid claimed that the biopic depicted her in a unfairly negative way and it was a misrepresentation of TLC’s early rise to fame, which was defamatory of her.
In the defamation lawsuit Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid is claiming a cool $40 million in damages. On the other hand Viacom insists that the biopic was “a docudrama about the experiences of the members of TLC told from their perspective” and is therefore protected by America’s First Amendment free speech provisions.
Last year, Viacom’s application for summary judgement was rejected. Taking this into account Viacom went on to file a ‘motion for reconsideration’. But things haven’t worked out for Viacom as its motion was not accepted. The Judge, did rule that he had erred in his previous assessment of the case; he wrongly concluded that ‘actual malice’ should be considered across the whole biopic as opposed to a case-by-case basis for each scene Ms Reid has issue with.
The Judge did state that the refusal for the summary judgement application was correct and will stand. Therefore, this defamation dispute is certain to get longer as it makes its way to a trial by jury.
The owner of MTV, Viacom, and former member of TLC, Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid , are embroiled in a defamation dispute that may now go before a jury.
TLC is an American girl group that were very successful in the 1990s. They had nine top-ten hits and also recorded four multi-platinum albums and back in 2013 they were the subject of a biopic titled ‘CrazySexyCool’, which was aired on Viacom’s VH1 channel.
The biopic had input from two of the surviving members: Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas. However, the third member Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid claimed that the biopic depicted her in a unfairly negative way and it was a misrepresentation of TLC’s early rise to fame, which was defamatory of her.
In the defamation lawsuit Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid is claiming a cool $40 million in damages. On the other hand Viacom insists that the biopic was “a docudrama about the experiences of the members of TLC told from their perspective” and is therefore protected by America’s First Amendment free speech provisions.
Last year, Viacom’s application for summary judgement was rejected. Taking this into account Viacom went on to file a ‘motion for reconsideration’. But things haven’t worked out for Viacom as its motion was not accepted. The Judge, did rule that he had erred in his previous assessment of the case; he wrongly concluded that ‘actual malice’ should be considered across the whole biopic as opposed to a case-by-case basis for each scene Ms Reid has issue with.
The Judge did state that the refusal for the summary judgement application was correct and will stand. Therefore, this defamation dispute is certain to get longer as it makes its way to a trial by jury.
The owner of MTV, Viacom, and former member of TLC, Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid , are embroiled in a defamation dispute that may now go before a jury.
TLC is an American girl group that were very successful in the 1990s. They had nine top-ten hits and also recorded four multi-platinum albums and back in 2013 they were the subject of a biopic titled ‘CrazySexyCool’, which was aired on Viacom’s VH1 channel.
The biopic had input from two of the surviving members: Tionne ‘T-Boz’ Watkins and Rozonda ‘Chilli’ Thomas. However, the third member Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid claimed that the biopic depicted her in a unfairly negative way and it was a misrepresentation of TLC’s early rise to fame, which was defamatory of her.
In the defamation lawsuit Perri ‘Pebbles’ Reid is claiming a cool $40 million in damages. On the other hand Viacom insists that the biopic was “a docudrama about the experiences of the members of TLC told from their perspective” and is therefore protected by America’s First Amendment free speech provisions.
Last year, Viacom’s application for summary judgement was rejected. Taking this into account Viacom went on to file a ‘motion for reconsideration’. But things haven’t worked out for Viacom as its motion was not accepted. The Judge, did rule that he had erred in his previous assessment of the case; he wrongly concluded that ‘actual malice’ should be considered across the whole biopic as opposed to a case-by-case basis for each scene Ms Reid has issue with.
The Judge did state that the refusal for the summary judgement application was correct and will stand. Therefore, this defamation dispute is certain to get longer as it makes its way to a trial by jury.
