New Filing in Tyra Banks, Netflix Suit Raises Questions

Tyra Banks and Netflix are continuing to go head-to-head in their legal spat over the streamer’s popular docuseries, “Reality Check: Inside America’s Next Top Model.” And now, a new filing appears to show eye-opening information that could play in her favor, and her lawyers are speaking their peace about it. Let’s break it down.

The veteran model filed a defamation lawsuit against Netflix, alleging it created a “false narrative” and used “selective editing, deliberate omission, and surgical manipulation of continuous footage” to do so.

Banks claimed that she sat down for a three-and-a-half-hour conversation for the project, but only 16 minutes were included in the final product. The footage used, she said, created a false narrative that made it look as if she was avoiding accountability for the horrible part she played during “America’s Next Top Model’s” run. Additionally, Banks’ legal team also recently asked for the unedited footage in its entirety from her interview so that they could further prove their claims.

Now, her team is taking an even bigger step in the case and releasing some intriguing new findings in a new filing on Wednesday. While Netflix has yet to respond publicly or to us after we reached out for a comment, Banks’ legal counsel, Tom Clare, spoke out in a statement sent to The Root. In it, he explained that the case isn’t about how much airtime Banks received, but rather how Netflix edited her words and the need to see the full interview footage to determine whether her meaning was changed.

“Netflix is trying to turn this into a fight over airtime. It isn’t. Tyra’s claim is that Netflix cut and rearranged her words in ways that changed their meaning. The videos already before the Court show what can be proven from public footage alone,” Clare said. “That is precisely why the full record matters, including Tyra’s three-and-a-half-hour interview and the other underlying interview footage and materials used to make the ‘documentary’ series. If this is what the public record already reveals, the question is what the rest of the footage will show.”

When it comes to filing, it specifically contains two video exhibits comparing what Netflix aired with the underlying footage. The first video, as seen below, allegedly shows how Banks’ response about remembering Shandi’s story was edited and made to look as if she remembered details.

The second video seemingly reverses the sequence of a 2004 conversation and makes it appear as if Banks introduced the subject of cheating when Shandi raised it first.

What’s more, the streaming platform has filed to have the suit dismissed, making it clear that they would “vigorously defend” the project and those who brought it to life.

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