Woman wants $5 million for being humiliated in 'Real World' house

By Eriq Gardner

A woman who appeared on a recent episode of MTV's "The Real World" is suing producers for $5 million, claiming she was given 8 to 10 alcoholic beverages and ridiculed when she refused to have sex with one of the show's cast members.

The lawsuit, filed by Golzar Amirmotazedi against Viacom, MTV and Bunim/Murray Prods, alleges invasion of privacy, false light, disclosure of private facts and intentional and negligent infliction of emotional distress. 

According to the complaint, after becoming heavily intoxicated, Amirmotazedi was taken in September to the Real World house off Dupont Circle in Washington DC. She says that in the early morning hours, she was thrown out of the home by cast members Andrew and Josh after declining to have sex with one of them. Later, she was portrayed on the show as "crazy," "weird," a "mess" and a "stalker" with emotional problems. Online commenters called her a "crack whore" and Andrew's "crazy stalker chick."

Suing for invasion of privacy used to be commonplace in the unscripted television world, but producers have become very good at crafting strong liability waivers. As we saw with the "Borat" cases, judges have mostly upheld these waivers, even under exigent circumstances.

In this case, Amirmotazedi claims she was too inebriated to sign a lawful waiver. "Outtakes from the 'Real World'... show that Plaintiff in fact was not in a position to provide her consent to Defendant portraying her in a false light or disclosing private facts about her," says the complaint.

The case will likely turn on whether producers encouraged her to drink and whether she had the capacity to contract, similar to the legal analysis in cases involving women going topless in those "Girls Gone Wild" videos. The lawsuit was filed in D.C. Superior Court.

UPDATED:

Bunim-Murray Prods gave us the following statement:

“While it is the policy of Bunim-Murray Productions not to comment on pending legal matters, the company would like to go on record to state that the claim filed by Golzar Amirmotazedi against Viacom, MTV and Bunim-Murray is totally without merit. We believe the case will be dismissed.”