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Actress Sofia Vergara has been named in a lawsuit by the family of Griselda Blanco over an upcoming Netflix show about the late Colombian drug lord.
TMZ reports Blanco’s adult children are suing Vergara and Netflix for what they say is the unauthorized use of their family’s image and likeness.
The show, simply titled Griselda, is inspired by the life of Griselda Blanco, who created one of the biggest drug cartels in history in the 1970s and 1980s out of Miami.
Griselda’s youngest son, Michael Blanco – who appeared on the VH1 reality show Cartel Crew from 2019 to 2021, claims he has been working on developing his mother’s life story into some sort of film or TV production and book since 2009.
Michael claims that these fellas he was consulting with not only wanted to develop his narrative into a show, but into a book as well — and he says they told him they’d start shopping it around Hollywood in 2016. He alleges they pitched it to a producer … ahead of a meeting with Netflix about it. Michael claims he was then told Netflix was interested — but that they didn’t wanna use any of his details or consultations from the interviews he’d done.
The lawsuit claims Netflix used his material to create this new series, but hasn’t paid the family any payment for it.
He and his siblings have asked for an injunction to block the release of the Netflix show, which is set to begin airing on Jan. 25.
Sofia Vergara, an executive producer on the show, isn’t the first actress to take a stab at portraying Griselda Blanco.
In 2017, Catherine Zeta-Jones played Griselda in the film Cocaine Godmother.
That particular effort was widely panned by critics.
One review charged the production with “brownface casting” by using white actress Zeta-Jones in the lead role.
“She’s not just unconvincing; she’s outlandish,” wrote Hanh Nguyen of IndieWire, adding, “Zeta-Jones doesn’t chew the scenery so much as gum it lovingly with her put-upon accent.”
Hopefully, Sofia Vergara’s performance will be better received. Assuming we ever get to to see it, that is.