Only 84 people on the night managed to squeeze into the small venue to see Richard Gadd’s Edinburgh Fringe play Baby Reindeer, which ran for almost four weeks in 2019.
But the little toy – the basis of the television show Baby Reindeer – could cost TV streaming service Netflix up to $120 million (£92 million), plus legal fees.
In June, a lawyer acting for Fiona Harvey, the real inspiration for Martha’s stalker, launched an illegal legal attack on Netflix, demanding $ 170 million (£ 130 million), claiming that she has been defamed on a scale and scale. without precedent’. He was also charged for, among other things, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and gross negligence.
While Netflix is ​​fighting to have the case thrown out before it goes to trial next May, Ms Harvey seems unwilling to give up. This week, her legal team filed another amended complaint, pointing out some significant differences between the show and the TV show, which swept the board at the Emmys last month.
Baby Reindeer television show – could cost Netflix TV streaming service up to $120 million (£92 million), plus legal fees.
According to the court papers, the drama, which stars Richard Gadd as stand-up comedian alter ego Donny Dunn, never claims to be a ‘true story’ as the TV show does, instead stating that it is ‘based on a true story’. In addition, it is claimed that the play contains no reference to Martha’s arrest, indictment, guilty plea or imprisonment.
This, Harvey’s team argues, is key because the Netflix show ends with Martha pleading guilty to stalking Donny. Because he was a convicted stalker, due to his previous campaign against lawyers, he was sentenced to four and a half years in prison for this second offence.
In contrast, in the play Baby Reindeer, he is never arrested, let alone convicted. However, Donny was told by the police that Martha could not be arrested because they did not believe she had committed a crime, and he was ordered to ‘apologise’ to her, ending the police ‘distraction’ and saying: ‘I understand the frustration but heckling. not a crime.’
In the play, Gadd’s character tells the audience: ‘My last experience with the police was such a burn, it’s a shame I don’t want to be involved again.’
It ended with her getting a restraining order against him.
Harvey’s team said that differences like this prove Netflix knows that they have never been accused of stalking once, never twice.
According to the legal papers filed by his team on Wednesday: ‘Omission of all the arc and premise of the Series, the stalker was convicted back to prison after pleading guilty to stalking Gadd, from Play … put Netflix in a notice detailing Harvey’s criminal history in the Series it may be false.’
No Harvey is the only one on the warpath. For me to be able to reveal some of the alleged experiences of Richard Gadd at the hands of Fiona Harvey, which has been described in sworn statements submitted to the court in Los Angeles, making jaw-dropping reading.
Fiona Harvey, the real inspiration for Martha’s stalker in Baby Reindeer
Actresses Jessica Gunning, who plays ‘Martha’ on the show, and Richard Gadd, who plays himself, pose with the Emmy awards in California earlier this year.
Accusations include that Harvey told Gadd that her clitoris had fallen off because of excessive masturbation, that she sent him her ‘lucky pants’ in a post after he had blocked her email, as well as invitations and requests for people to participate in sexual activities.
He also allegedly complained of itchy pubic hair.
There are also allegedly racist remarks about immigrants and observations that they are going to ‘gun shops’ and that ‘if we get rid of (London mayor Sadiq) Khan everyone will sleep easy’.
Gadd also said that Harvey shoved him in the back of the neck after confronting him about allegedly stalking the lawyer and told him that ‘a big mouth will get him into trouble’. In the statement, he complained of repeated ‘handsome’ behaviour, with him touching his bottom while waiting tables at a pub in Camden, North London, where he worked while trying to become a comedian.
In the TV series, which also shows Donny working in a pub, sexual contact is depicted as far graver – Martha sexually assaults Donny in the alley, something that her team said never happened in real life. In the TV series, he is seen attacking her with glass and gouging her eyes, which Ms Harvey claims is defamatory and untrue.
For his part, Gadd said he was issued with a First Harassment Warning letter in 2016, which mentioned the Hawley Arms pub where the ‘victim’ worked. After months of further abuse, including Harvey allegedly telling Gadd: ‘If I want you dead, you die’, Gadd said he was issued another First Instance Harassment Warning letter in 2017. He included correspondence with the police as evidence. This is the first time Netflix has released the exact details of her contact with the police.
Fiona appeared in a YouTube interview with Piers Morgan in which she denied sending thousands of emails to Richard Gadd as depicted in the Netflix show.
Earlier, Netflix executive Benjamin King told a Commons select committee that the show was a ‘true story’ and that Gadd had been targeted by a ‘convicted stalker’.
He later ‘clarified’ the evidence in an email to the committee’s former chair, Dame Caroline Dinenage in July, writing that ‘the person who shared the event’ was actually ‘subject to a court order rather than a conviction’.
In his amended complaint against Netflix, Harvey included a clear DBS (Disclosure and Barring Service) check to prove his innocence. An incident in the TV show not depicted in the play includes a reference to Martha waiting outside Donny’s flat for 16 hours a day, including in the middle of the night.
There is no reference in the play to Martha breaking the glass on her head, which she did in the TV series.
The complaint added that in an interview conducted to announce the TV show, Gadd backed away from his position as a ‘true story’, a line Netflix uses in publicity materials and on screen. He noted that he was called ‘quite honest’, ‘100 per cent emotionally correct’ and ‘very emotionally correct’. In a ruling last week in California, Judge R. Gary Klausner noted there were substantial disparities between what really happened and what was shown on screen.
He wrote: ‘There is a major difference between stalking and being convicted of stalking in court.’ He added: ‘There is a major difference between inappropriate touching and sexual assault, as well as between driving and gouging another’s eyes.’
Judge Klausner disagreed with Netflix, who said the case should be seen as ‘intrinsically true’ because he did something very similar in real life.
Netflix also argued that most viewers would understand the claims made in the show as ‘non-factual’ because it was shot in a drama style. Hakim disagreed, writing: ‘When such a statement is made in a series that generally has the trappings of a black comedy drama, the first episode states unequivocally that ‘this is a true story’, thus inviting the audience to accept the statement. as a fact.’
Netflix also said that the similarities between the real and fictional people were so broad that the average viewer would not be able to recognize Ms Harvey as Martha. The judge disagreed. Netflix appealed the decision.
The judge sided with Netflix in part of Ms Harvey’s case, dismissing the negligence and gross negligence claims, and the damages claim.
As the two teams of high-powered lawyers prepare for the next round of hostilities, some observers think the time has come for Netflix to get over Harvey.
This month a mediator, Gail Title, was assigned to the case. Netflix must submit a mediation questionnaire to him by Tuesday next week. Is the on-screen drama coming to a close?
