Former daytime talk show host Wendy Williams signed a contract to take part in a docuseries that critics have called exploitative without her financial guardian present, a legal filing NBC News obtained Tuesday alleges.
Williams was impaired — but had not yet been diagnosed with a neurological condition that affects her ability to communicate and understand others — when she agreed in November 2022 to take part in a two-part Lifetime docuseries, the guardian, Sabrina Morrissey, said in court documents filed Feb. 21 in New York State Supreme Court and unsealed Thursday. The docuseries aired in two parts on Feb. 24 and 25.
“She was not, and is not, capable for consenting to the terms of the documentary Contract,” the papers state. “And no one acting in [Williams’] best interest would allow her to be portrayed in the demeaning manner in which she is portrayed in the Trailer for the documentary.”
Even though Williams is listed as the executive producer of “Where is Wendy Williams?” Morrissey asked the court to declare the contract null and void and bar A&E Television Networks and Entertainment One Reality Productions from “releasing the documentary and any associated footage.”
The day the court documents were filed, Williams’ management team announced in a statement that she was in a treatment facility, diagnosed with primary progressive aphasia and frontotemporal dementia, the debilitating ailment that actor Bruce Willis was diagnosed with in 2022.
It was all for naught.
Citing the First Amendment, a judge on Feb. 23 dismissed Morrissey’s request for a restraining order to block the show from airing but did not dismiss her lawsuit.
Morrissey said in the court papers that Williams was depicted in a “demeaning and undignified manner.” The two-part docuseries sparked outrage from Williams’ friends and fans.
Morrissey, whom a New York state judge appointed as Williams’ guardian in February 2022, is still suing A&E.
In her lawsuit, which was…
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