Back in August a woman named Jessie Nizewitz sued the producers and parent company of VH1’s Dating Naked for $10 million because they neglected to blur her vagina and anus while she “performed a WWE-style wrestling move on her date” during her appearance on the show, and as a result she “has suffered and continues to suffer severe extreme emotional distress, mental anguish, humiliation and embarrassment.” Perhaps you remember this. Multimillion-dollar lawsuits about unblurred genitals on basic cable have a way of lingering around one’s brain.
Anyway, the defendants have responded. The gist of their case is that they had the right to show “unfettered nudity” because she signed a series of contracts that granted consent, and that the “former actress, model, and stripper” said nudity wasn’t “a big deal” in her application. From The Hollywood Reporter:
The agreements that Nizewitz, 28, signed as a condition to participate on the program are described by the producers as “unequivocal” in that Dating Naked was conferred the right to film her in the nude, that the footage would be telecast without restriction, and that she waived any claims arising out of her appearance on the show. What’s more, Nizewitz agreed to pay defendants’ attorney fees and costs if she ever brought a lawsuit.
To buttress their case, the lawyers for the defense also pointed to the lawsuits that cropped up after Borat became a cultural phenomenon, which were dismissed because the plaintiffs “consented to participating in a ‘documentary-style movie by accepting money for their efforts and signing releases that freed the filmmakers from liability,” even though they were made to look like dimwits and boobs in the final edit.
So, to recap: A network that used to show the music video for “Torn” by Natalie Imbruglia 20 times a day now has a show in which naked people court each other through a process that occasionally involves professional wrestling moves, and when a lady sued them for showing everyone her naked butthole they replied by citing the legal precedent set forth thanks to a movie that featured a man crapping in a plastic bag and bringing it to dinner. What a country.
