Woman Who Inspired Jennifer Lopez’s Movie ‘Hustlers’ Sues For $40M

Samantha Barbash, the former stripper who inspired Jennifer Lopez's character in the movie ‘Hustlers’ is suing Lopez's production and company for $40 million - around £30 million. She is seeking $20 million in compensation and a further $20 million in damages from Lopez's Nuyorican Productions, STX Entertainment, Pole Sisters LLC and Gloria Sanchez Productions

In the lawsuit filed to the federal court, Barbash claims that she turned down producers when they sought consent to make the movie, but they went ahead with the movie regardless and used her likeliness without her consent. She also adds that she has been defamed by scenes in which she's seen 'using and manufacturing illegal substances in her home where she lived with her child', and that the inference was both 'offensive and untrue'.

Hustlers was based on a 2015 New York Magazine article which told a real life story about Barbash and other women who drugged and robbed their wealthy banker clients at strip clubs. But Barbash had told TMZ in an interview last year that she had declined to sell her rights to the movie's producers, saying they offered her "peanuts."

The movie, which also stars Constance Wu, Julia Styles and Cardi B, was praised by critics, Lopez's performance coming in for particular praise.

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