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Griselda Blanco’s Family Settles Lawsuit With Netflix and Sofia Vergara Over Claims of ‘No Credit’
The estate of late drug queenpin Griselda Blanco settled its lawsuit against Netflix and Sofía Vergara over claims the series, Griselda, did not receive permission to tell her life’s story and failed to give credit to the family.
The family’s legal counsel dismissed the complaint filed with prejudice on February 9, meaning that the same claim cannot find its way back to court again, according to documents obtained by The Hollywood Reporter.
At the center of the filing was Griselda’s son, Michael Corleone Blanco, and his wife, Marie, who filed the claims in Miami-Dade County Court shortly before the Netflix series about his mother dropped on January 25. Michael – who was believed to be Griselda’s only living son for a time – alleged that the streaming giant did not receive permission to use the family’s “image, likeness and/or identity.” He furthered the lawsuit by rehashing conversations he had with Netflix spanning from 2009 to 2022, claiming that interviews conducted with him and information sought for a potential book were used unjustly.
In the original lawsuit, the family’s legal counsel claimed that “unreleased and private literary work” belonging to Michael was “used to depict the life story of himself and his mother, Griselda Blanco De Trujillo, in this limited series, Griselda … with no credit to [Michael] for his artistic literary work.”
Netflix was naturally named in the lawsuit, as well as Sofía – who not only executive produced Griselda but played the drug queenpin in the series – along with five other defendants.
In response to the family’s legal action, fellow executive producer Eric Newman – who was not included in the lawsuit – told The Hollywood Reporter that Griselda was a “fictionalized account,” not the real-life telling that Michael claimed it to be.
“We’re not making a documentary; we’re not writing a book about Griselda,” Eric said. “So, we’re not going to tell a story that’s going to make everybody happy or that people are going to say, ‘Oh, that’s exactly what happened.’”
The executive producer furthered his take by comparing the Blanco family’s legal action with that of Pablo Escobar’s children suing over the Narcos series. “We had a very specific story we wanted to tell,” he additionally explained to Entertainment Tonight. “I believe we told it, and I don’t think it in any way prevents someone else from telling their own version of it.”
Sofía, meanwhile, maintained that she not only wanted to play Griselda, but to “understand” her. “I started from being fascinated by her, because she achieved many things that it was impossible for a woman to achieve,” she said, “Even though they were horrific.”
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