Wendy Williams’ Guardian Files Amended Lawsuit Claiming Talk Host Received “Paltry $82,000” For Lifetime Docuseries
The guardian for Wendy Williams has filed an amended lawsuit against A+E Networks and eOne over the Lifetime documentary reality project Where Is Wendy Williams? that aired in February, claiming that the TV personality was exploited in her participation and paid just $82,000 for the project.
The guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, also claimed that Williams’ signature on her contract with eOne to produce the series “does not appear to be genuine” and there is “no evidence” that she signed the agreement on January 25, 2023.
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Williams, the lawsuit stated, “was incapacitated and unable to consent at the time the Contract or its amendments were executed, even if she had signed it (which she did not).”
Her representatives disclosed earlier this year that she has been diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia. Williams had participated in the documentary and served as executive producer.
Read the amended Wendy Williams lawsuit.
The amended lawsuit, filed Monday in New York Supreme Court, follows an unsuccessful effort by Morrissey to halt the airing of the documentary this year. She had sought a court order to stop the project, arguing in February that the project was a “blatant exploitation of a vulnerable woman with a serious medical condition,” and that the talk host had lacked mental capacity to enter a contract to do the show.
A New York judge initially granted the order to prevent the airing of Where Is Wendy Williams?, but that was quickly reversed on appeal.
A spokesperson for A+E Networks and Lifetime said that they don’t comment on lawsuits.
A+E attorneys had argued earlier this year that the series reflected Williams’ “own journey through the guardianship process.” The attorney contended that “only after seeing the Documentary’s trailer and realizing her role in [Wendy Williams ] life may be criticized did Ms. Morrissey enlist the courts to unconstitutionally silence that criticism.”
Morrissey has enlisted Roberta Kaplan and her law firm to represent her in the amended complaint. They are seeking a court declaration that Williams’ contract is null and void, unspecified compensatory and punitive damages, disgorgement of proceeds from the documentary project and an injunction prohibiting additional airings of it, among other things.
“The profits from the Program should go to Wendy Williams, who will need significant funding to provide for proper medical care and supervision for the rest of her life,” the lawsuit stated.
In the new complaint, Morrissey claims that “by willfully taking advantage of a severely impaired, incapacitated person, Defendants have made millions on W.W.H.’s back, while W.W.H. has received a paltry $82,000.”
Morrissey’s attorneys cite early reports of Williams’ “increasingly erratic behavior,” and noted that her “difficulties were often captured on camera” as host of a daily talk show.
“As early as 2021, press reports attributed these changes to early-onset dementia,” the lawsuit stated. “These reports were widely circulated on social media, in the press, and on entertainment talk shows.”
Her show was canceled in 2022 after it became clear that she would not be able to return, according to the suit. Williams was diagnosed in May 2023 with frontotemporal lobe dementia and primary progressive aphasia, the suit stated. But stories had leaked a year earlier that a court had established a guardianship for her.
The lawsuit also cited the influence of David Selby, who represented Williams as her new manager. According to Morrissey’s claim, when the Lifetime documentary series went into production, Selby told her that he would have “full creative control” and that the project would show her in a positive light.
The lawsuit claimed that the contract for Williams’ participation was signed after the project started production, “while she was clearly disheveled, not mentally present, and confused.”
“No person who witnessed [Williams] in these circumstances could possibly have believed that she was capable of consenting either to an agreement to film, or to the filming itself,” the lawsuit stated. The lawsuit alleged that her signature on the contract “bears a printed, not cursive signature purporting to be the signature of [Wendy Williams], but looks nothing like W.W.H.’s signature.”
Morrissey did not see the contract until months later, according to the suit.
“Indeed, none of the Defendants ever gained the Guardian’s consent for [\Williams’] participation in the film, and there was no way W.W.H. could have consented, as she was incapacitated prior to and during filming,” the lawsuit stated.
People first reported on the new complaint.
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