According to Judge Gary Klausner of the US District Court, Central District of California, Netflix should have considered Robert Evans' perspective when they greenlit and marketed "Baby Reindeer" as a true story.
Richard Gadd wrote and produced "Baby Reindeer" based on the one act PLAYS he had written about his experience being stalked. For the Netflix project, he claims he went to great effort to conceal the identity of his purported stalker. Gadd was paid handsomely, earned critical acclaim, and even multiple Emmy Awards for his work on "Baby Reindeer."
However, Gadd did not write the project under a pseudonym or hide his identity in anyway. In fact, Gadd went so far to star in the project. Failing to conceal his identity or involvement in the project made it easy for Internet Sleuths to identify the alleged perpetrator... Fiona Harvey.
Significantly, Fiona Harvey did not consent to the story being told, was not paid anything for her rights, and was cast in a far worse light than the TRUE story supports. In fact, the salacious claims Gadd made about his stalker in the based on "true" story are verifiably untrue. Harvey has never been convicted of a crime much less arrested for stalking or anything else. She did not commit the violent acts or sexual assault Gadd claimed in the "true" story.
Like everyone does, Richard Gadd has the right to tell his story. However, when telling our truths it is important to remember that our truth may not be THE truth. Telling your story does not give you permission to tell lies about or defame other people.
Here, for whatever reason, Gadd embellished the truth in a way that made his story more compelling but at what cost to Harvey? At this point I expect Netflix to settle this matter so we won't find out how much money Harvey will receive. Unfortunately, she is not getting any of the critical acclaim or awards... just the pain and embarrassment of being defamed.
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