Yahoo Movies Netflix facing lawsuit over The Queen's Gambit
Netflix is facing a $5 million defamation lawsuit after its hit series The Queen's Gambit was accused of misrepresenting Georgian chess master Nona Gaprindashvili.
The 80-year-old chess player initially filed the lawsuit in September last year after hearing an allegedly factually incorrect statement about her in the show.
During one of Beth's (Anya Taylor-Joy) matches, a commentator says: "The only unusual thing about her [Elizabeth Harmon], really, is her sex. And even that's not unique in Russia. There's Nona Gaprindashvili, but she's the female world champion and has never faced men."
Related: Why Netflix hit The Queen's Gambit is suddenly under fire
Gaprindashvili's lawyers state that she had in fact played against multiple men during her chess career, and by 1968 (when that scene is set), had faced almost 60. She went on to become the first woman to be named a Grandmaster in chess.
Her lawyers added that the alleged misrepresentation was "grossly sexist and belittling", a "devastating falsehood" and that it "misrepresented one of [her] most significant career achievements... before millions of viewers worldwide".
On Thursday (January 27), US District Judge Virginia A Phillips ruled for the lawsuit to go forward.
Netflix had claimed that since it was an "entirely fictional work, no reasonable viewer would have understood the line to convey a statement of fact". It hoped to use the First Amendment to protect its use of artistic license.
Despite Netflix arguing that it used two chess experts to certify details and hoped to "recognise, not disparage her", Phillips disagreed. The judge said that the show's fictional nature did not preclude "defamation claims for the portrayal of real persons in otherwise fictional works".
Phillips added: "The fact that the series was a fictional work does not insulate Netflix from liability for defamation if all the elements of defamation are otherwise present."
The Queen's Gambit is available to stream now on Netflix.
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