The Real Rachel Williams Is Suing Netflix Over Inventing Anna's Fictional Rachel Williams
glamour.comon purpose? According to Williams's defamation suit against the network: Yes it did. Williams's personal essay about her experience with (real name Anna Sorokin) was published in April 2018 in Vanity Fair, right before New York Magazine published its own report on the fake heiress and her extensive grift.
In Inventing Anna, which is based on the New York story, Williams's essay is treated like a shallow, self-serving version of New York's in-depth reporting.
In fact, the character based on Williams ()—which uses her real name and personal details including her workplace—comes across as pretty terrible generally.
In her defamation suit, according to , Williams argues that Netflix made her look like “a vile and contemptible person” on purpose, leading to irreparable harm to her reputation and making her the subject of online harassment and abuse.Perhaps, the suit implies, the fact that Williams sold the rights to her story to HBO for a competing Anna Sorokin biopic series had something to do with it. “Given the easy alternative of protecting her by using a fictional name, the decision to use her real name evidences Netflix's intent to harm her reputation, thereby justifying the imposition of punitive damages, especially if Netflix made that decision because Williams had sold her rights to the rival Sorokin project being developed by HBO,” the lawsuit states.
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