A girl who as soon as appeared “clearly intoxicated” in a Kanye West music video can not sue for defamation after the footage was used within the Kanye-focused Netflix documentary jeen-yuhs, a federal decide says, even when she later acquired sober and “turned her life round.”
Cynthia Love sued final 12 months, claiming jeen-yuhs filmmakers Coodie Simmons and Chike Ozah defamed her by together with the footage within the 2022 Netflix sequence. The clip, which confirmed Love dancing and slurring her phrases at a Chicago barbecue spot, was initially shot for the 2003 music video for Kanye West’s debut single, “By way of The Wire.”
Love’s argument was uncommon. She admitted that the footage was genuine — usually the dying knell for a libel lawsuit. However she argued that as a result of she had later gotten sober, it had turn into false and defamatory to make use of it within the current day.
In a ruling Tuesday (Feb. 27), Choose Steven Seeger sharply rejected that argument, ruling that the footage was “traditionally correct” and exhibits a “a previous fact,” even when it was a fact that Love didn’t need to bear in mind.
“Holding up a mirror isn’t defamation. Holding up a 20-year-old image isn’t defamation, both,” the decide wrote. “They each mirror actuality, prefer it or not.”
It didn’t matter that Love had later “turned issues round,” the decide wrote, or that the Netflix doc depicts her at her “darkest moments” years in the past: “The ‘Jeen-yuhs’ video precisely portrays Love in a second of time a number of a long time in the past. The video doesn’t recommend that Love stays in an intoxicated state, or something of that kind.”
Directed by Coodie & Chike (the moniker utilized by the filmmakers), jeen-yuhs depicted West’s profession by means of unreleased archival footage, a lot of it filmed by Coodie over a long time of working with the rapper. After touchdown at Netflix for a reported $30 million, the sequence was launched in February 2022 — simply months earlier than West would obtain widespread condemnation for a string of antisemitic statements.
Years earlier, Love had briefly appeared within the “By way of The Wire” video, which was directed by Coodie & Chike in one in every of their first initiatives. The video confirmed Love drunkenly dancing in Chicago eater Authentic Leon’s Bar-B-Q. That footage, plus extra unused footage displaying her interacting with West, later appeared in jeen-yuhs, making up about two minutes of footage whole throughout two episodes.
Love sued final 12 months, accusing Coodie & Chike and Netflix of defamation and a variety of different wrongdoing. (West was not named or accused of any wrongdoing). She claimed they’d “recklessly disregarded the reality” that she had made “a tremendous transformation” for the reason that ugly footage was filmed, hurting her fame amongst present-day friends: “Neighbors, co-workers, and household can not assist however view and deal with her as somebody much less worthy of their respect, esteem and belief,” her legal professionals wrote.
However in Tuesday’s order dismissing these allegations, Choose Seeger pointedly famous that “generally the reality hurts, and when the reality hurts, it isn’t defamation.” Summarizing her argument as “the footage was true then, nevertheless it isn’t true now,” the decide instructed her that’s merely not how defamation legislation works.
“Plain and easy, any allegations about Love within the ‘Jeen-yuhs’ docuseries are true,” the decide wrote. “The docuseries consists of real-world clips of Love, with out doctoring the content material or including any false materials. It exhibits true clips of an actual occasion.”
Attorneys for either side didn’t instantly return a request for remark.
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