Years after the shocking story of the "SoHo Grifter" made headlines, the story of Anna Delvey [1] is making its way to Netflix [2] with the upcoming series "Inventing Anna." [3] As the real Delvey — aka Anna Sorokin — continues her legal case, we couldn't help wondering if she got paid by Netflix for her story.
According to Insider, Sorokin did get a paycheck from Netflix [4] in exchange for the rights to her story — a cool $320,000, no less. Reportedly, she's been using that money to pay restitution to the banks and others she defrauded during her spree. Financial records reviewed by Insider apparently show her paying $199,000 of that Netflix money toward restitution to banks (including $70,000 she still owed to Citibank) and another $24,000 to settle state fines. She's also looking at $75,000 in legal fees and counting, as her case winds toward its conclusion, as well as smaller amounts toward other victims.
The complexities of life-story rights — that is, the rights to portray the lives of real people, especially people who have lived relatively recently as opposed to centuries ago — are a particularly knotty area of entertainment law. According to "The Hollywood Reporter," "The only causes of action [6] a celebrity or public figure has against the use of his/her name, likeness or life story in non-commercial speech is for false light or libel." In other words, it's hard for a person deemed a public figure (which is another whole legal checklist) to sue, even over an "unauthorized" story, unless it's blatantly, deliberately damaging or false. However, having the rights to a life story can give a production company advantages, such as exclusive access to information or resources, as well as a veneer of authenticity in the court of public opinion.
It's not just Netflix and other producers who are bound by this life-story deal; Sorokin is too. As the BBC explained, such a contract limits Sorokin from telling her story elsewhere [7]. She can't participate in other documentaries, tell her story on a talk show, write a book, or tell her story in any other forms outside the scope of the TV series for years after its debut. It's just one more step in a saga where public attention and money have been at the center of it all.
