Sofia Vergara is being sued by the estate of infamous drug lord, Griselda Blanco, for an upcoming Netflix show.
In the show, titled Griselda, Vergara plays the Colombian drug dealer, who was prominent from the 1970s into the early 2000s.
According to TMZ, Blanco’s children, who are acting as representatives of her estate, are suing the Modern Family star and Netflix, claiming “unauthorized use of their family’s image and likeness in the upcoming series”.
The miniseries is set to premiere on Netflix on January 25, however the lawsuit may delay its release, as Blanco’s children are urging for an injunction to block or delay the series coming out.
As per TMZ, Blanco’s son, Michael claims he had done interviews for many years with people who were attempting to get details about the lives of his and his mother, to use to develop into a production.
The people with whom Michael was meeting reportedly told him they wanted to “develop his narrative into a show” but also a book. According to TMZ Michael said that “they told him they’d start shopping it around Hollywood in 2016”. Although the projects using his material never seemed to take off, Michael is now claiming that Griselda utilises a lot of his anecdotes, but he has never received compensation.
TMZ reports that as Blanco is a public figure, the lawsuit doesn’t specify that Netflix can’t depict her, however the children are claiming that the use of their own images and likeness without their permission is violating their rights.
In other news, Vergara has said that a Modern Family reboot “doesn’t seem right”.
