Netflix being sued for defamation in the Queens Gambit

[AdamRyan]

www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-60167723

I think good on Nona. It might be fiction but the line massively disparages her efforts and is another example of women being airbrushed from history.

Netflix think it's not a problem to completely rewrite a woman's actual achievement to make their fictional female character more impressive.

I don't know, fictionalized accounts do this stuff all the time. Look at that Kate Winslet one where they decided to make a real woman a lesbian to make her adequately interesting and edgy. Apparently a religious woman who was a carer for her mum was not good enough even if she made important scientific discoveries.

This is someone who's still alive though. And it adds precisely nothing to the story to pretend Nona didn't achieve what she did. Its weird

I think she has a point. I’d assume it was true that she hadn’t faced male opponents. Why include a real person otherwise? As the producers say, you’d need knowledge of Soviet chess in the 60s to know anything about her. So they could have just made someone up.

While obviously this is going to be more annoying to a person who is alive, I think the principle may come to the same thing, though, and it seems to be common enough in films that I cannot imagine it's a legal issue for them.

Do you need to prove damages for defamation in the US?

I agree it's kind of bad form though in this case it strikes me mainly as thoughtlessness, rather than any anything else.

While obviously this is going to be more annoying to a person who is alive, I think the principle may come to the same thing, though

It’s not the same principle in terms of a court case though. If someone is dead you can legally say what you like, I believe. Their family can’t sue you for it. You can only libel the living.

When I say “you can only libel the living” I don’t mean can as in “are allowed to”. I mean it’s not libel if you are talking about a dead person.

I think she is right to challenge it - I would like more care for factual accuracy when a real person is being depicted or referred to.

I agree, it's so insulting, I'm not surprised the chess champion is annoyed. It would have taken nothing from the story to acknowledge Nona's achievements, or to leave her out and make it totally fictional.

@SickAndTiredAgain

While obviously this is going to be more annoying to a person who is alive, I think the principle may come to the same thing, though

It’s not the same principle in terms of a court case though. If someone is dead you can legally say what you like, I believe. Their family can’t sue you for it. You can only libel the living.

Sure, but I'm not convinced this would make the cut legally either. For one thing it is clearly labeled as fiction.

Morally I think it's actually not as bad as the instance I mentioned, because it was more lazy than anything. They probably only used a real person to give it a flavour or veracity.

I had no idea of the controversy when i watched it, but was surprised that the soviets would have an entirely separate stream of chess for women, given that in certain aspects sex equality was more advanced in USSR. It grated. I think it’s sloppy research and good luck to her.

I'm with her. Netflix have said that ' . . . since it was an "entirely fictional work, no reasonable viewer would have understood the line to convey a statement of fact." I'd suggest that, as it was an entirely fictional work, they should have used an entirely fictional name in that scene, rather than use a real one and be inaccurate about her career and opponents.

@Calist

I think she has a point. I’d assume it was true that she hadn’t faced male opponents. Why include a real person otherwise? As the producers say, you’d need knowledge of Soviet chess in the 60s to know anything about her. So they could have just made someone up.

This, exactly.

I think Netflix are being disingenuous about the complexity of what people assume to be true when they watch fiction.

I think it is a shabby way to treat someone who is a real life version of the heroine - whether it is legal or not it is not a decent thing to do to someone.

It is bad for women as a whole because it leaves the impression women can’t do this stuff in real life, only in fiction.

I also wonder if the line appeared in the original novel.

Usually they like to tarnish dead people's reputations. What James Cameron did with certain real personages in that Titanic film was utterly dreadful and IMO unforgivable, but since said people died in the disaster, there was no recourse.

Good for her. Hope she wins.

Good for her. Sick of Hollywood playing fast and lose with real people's stories