Movies

Jennifer Lopez’s company sued for $40m by Hustlers’ real life stripper who ‘inspired Ramona’


Jennifer has earned critical-acclaim for her performance in Hustlers (Picture: Getty, AP)

Jennifer Lopez’s production company is reportedly being sued for $40 million (£30.4 million) by the real life woman thought to have inspired the lead character in Hustlers.

The Golden Globe-nominated movie sees Jennifer, 50, star as Ramona, a stripper who runs a side hustle scamming and drugging wealthy Wall Street bankers.

It’s widely believed the story was inspired by Samantha Barbash, who plead guilty to conspiracy, assault and grand larceny in 2017 in exchange for five years’ probation.

According to TMZ, Barbash has filed a lawsuit against Jennifer’s Nuyorican Productions, STX Entertainment, Gloria Sanchez Productions and Pole Sisters LLC, for $20 million (£15 million) in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitives.

In the lawsuit, Barbash reportedly claims that producers approached her to obtain consent to use her story as inspiration but she turned them down.

Barbash argues they went ahead and made the movie anyway with Jennifer starring in the lead character based on her real life as a stripper in New York.

The former dancer claims Hustlers portrays her as ‘using and manufacturing illegal substances in her home where she lived with her child’, which she feels is false and offensive.

Jen starred as stripper Ramona (Picture: Rex Features)
Constance Wu played the lead character of Destiny (Picture: STXfilms)

In the film, Ramona is mother to a young daughter and is seen cooking drugs in the apartment she shares with the child.

The lawsuit states according to The Blast: ‘While the amount of accurate factual details presented within the film are sufficient to unequivocally identity JLO’s character as Ms.

‘Barbash, Defendants made statements and created scenes of and concerning Ms. Barbash in a grossly irresponsible manner.’

Jennifer is yet to comment on the lawsuit and STX Entertainment told The Wrap that while they are yet to see the filing, ‘we will continue to defend our right to tell factually based stories based on the public record’.

Metro.co.uk has contacted Jennifer’s reps but received no comment. 

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Hustlers earned critical-acclaim and a best supporting actress Golden Globe nomination for Jennifer but she lost out to Laura Dern for her performance in The Marriage Story.

The blockbuster, directed by Lorene Scafaria, was made on a budget of $20.7 million (£15.6 million) but went on to amass an impressive $157 million (£119 million) at the box office.

Jennifer recently revealed she didn’t get paid to star in or produce the movie but was instead motivated by the fact it was a passion project.

Speaking to GQ last year, the actress explained: ‘I didn’t get paid a whole bunch of money for Hustlers.

‘I did it for free and produced it. Like Jenny from the Block — I do what I love.’

Hustlers boasts a star-studded cast with Constance Wu, Julia Stiles, Keke Palmer, Llil Reinhart, Cardi B and Lizzo also starring.



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