Subjects of 'Afflicted' Sue Netflix, Producers for Defamation and Fraud

Seven people who appeared in the 2018 Netflix docuseries “Afflicted” have sued the streaming service and the show’s producers for defamation, false-light invasion of privacy, unjust enrichment and fraud over the way they were depicted on screen.

The seven-episode series, which debuted on Netflix in August 2018, follows the stories of people suffering from and attempting to treat chronic illnesses; among the subjects were Jamison Hill, Pilar Olave, Jill Edelstein and Bekah Dinnerstein.

But in court papers filed Wednesday in Los Angeles, Hill, Olave, Edelstein and Dinnerstein — joined by Dinnerstein’s brother Nicholas Dinnerstein and her partner Jesse Bercowetz, and Edelstein’s partner Janine Feczko — said they were “duped” into participating.

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In the filing, the plaintiffs say they thought the show would be “a serious documentary” that would spread awareness of their conditions. Instead, they say, the result was “a salacious reality television program that questioned the existence of chronic illnesses and portrayed plaintiffs as lazy, crazy hypochondriacs and/or malingerers who were deserving of scorn and who have in fact received scorn and abuse because of defendants’ cruel and duplicitous actions.”

The suit accuses the show of “deliberate presentation of factual errors as unequivocal facts,” of “omitting significant facts” about the conditions suffered by the plaintiffs, and of featuring experts who were “lacking the actual background and expertise” necessary to comment on these conditions or who “never examined or met” the subjects.

The suit also says that employees of the show’s production company, Doc Shop Productions, lied when asked about the nature of the show and the way subjects would be portrayed.

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Defendants include Netflix, Doc Shop Productions, Doc Shop head Dan Partland, series cinematographer Peter Logreco, producer Stephanie Lincoln and unnamed individuals referred to as “Does 1-50.” Representatives for Netflix, Doc Shop and Partland, Logreco and Lincoln did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Plaintiffs are seeking damages of at least $2 million, unspecified restitution, a permanent injunction preventing the show from being aired in the future and additional punitive and general damages.

Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.

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The critics have not been kind to Adam Sandler over the years -- but see just how unkind they've been to comedies in which he's taken a lead role.
Netflix
"Sandy Wexler" (2017)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 33%

"There's no way to recommend it, yet I wouldn't ask for my two hours back (though I do wish that they could have been sped up somewhat)" New Yorker critic Richard Brody wrote.
Netflix
"The Week Of" (2018)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 27%

"The best that can be said about 'The Week Of 'is that it at least tacks some heart onto an otherwise stale, mothball-scented set-up," EW critic Chris Nashawaty wrote in 2017.
“Little Nicky” (2000)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 22%

“Like spending 84 minutes in Hell,” critic Christy Lemire wrote when it hit theaters in 2000.
New Line Cinema
“That’s My Boy” (2012)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 20%

“Vulgar, trite, sexist, misogynist, hacky, tacky, gross, sentimental and stupid, with occasional flourishes of racism and veiled homophobia thrown in to boot,” TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde wrote in his 2012 review.
Columbia Pictures
“Just Go With It” (2011)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 19%

“An early contender for worst movie of the year. If they were showing this on an airplane, I'd ask for a parachute,” Richard Roeper wrote in 2011.
Columbia Pictures
“Pixels” (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 17%

“A middle finger aimed right at the audience,” The Verge critic Bryan Bishop wrote in 2015.
Columbia Pictures
“Blended” (2014)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 14%

“I felt like it was crushing the soul out of me. But it's still not as bad as Grown-Ups 2,” TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde wrote in his review of 2014 movie co-starring Drew Barrymore.
Warner Bros.
“I Now Pronounce You Chuck & Larry” (2007)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 14%

“Even unrepentant homophobes deserve funnier,” Chicago Tribune Michael Phillips wrote in his 2007 review of movie about two firefighters who pretend to be gay to get benefits of a domestic partnership.
Universal Pictures
“Grown Ups” (2010)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 10%

“I felt a deep sadness every time the audience laughed and the sounds of their chuckles turned into the ringing of the cash register, and all I thought was a grim, simple truth: This, America, is why we can't have nice things,” critic James Rocchi wrote of the 2010 reunion flick starring some of Sandler’s best buddies.
Columbia Pictures
“The Cobbler” (2015)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 9%

“A movie like this, in which not a single scene comes together, in which almost nothing makes you laugh or cry or think, reminds you that it's truly a miracle when movies work at all,” Pulitzer Prize winner Wesley Morris wrote in 2015 about the surprisingly bad film from “Spotlight” director Tom McCarthy.
Image Entertainment
“Grown Ups 2” (2013)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 7%

“Yes, it's time for another visit to the Adam Sandler Death-of-Cinema Fun Factory, the big-screen version of a terrible sitcom where laugh tracks are replaced by the co-stars chuckling at their own awful material,” TheWrap’s Alonso Duralde wrote about this unnecessary sequel in 2013.
Columbia Pictures
"The Do-Over" (2016)
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 6%

"It takes a certain blithe self-confidence to take this Scotch-taped-together plot and run it out well past the 90-minute mark," critic Jesse Hassenger wrote.

Netflix
"Jack & Jill"
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 3%

“Comedy moved on from the mid-1990s, and it's time Sandler did, too. ‘Jack and Jill’ even gives fart jokes a bad name,” critic Jake Coyle wrote in 2011.
Columbia Pictures
"The Ridiculous Six"
Rotten Tomatoes Rating: 0%

"Thanks for nothing, Netflix," Chicago Sun-Times critic Richard Roeper wrote.
Netflix