Jessie Nizewitz, a contestant on VH1’s “Dating Naked,” has filed suit in New York, seeking $10 million in damages for emotional distress, humiliation and embarrassment after the show allegedly failed to properly blur her genitals.
The network’s parent company Viacom International Inc., Firelight Entertainment Inc. and Lighthearted Entertainment Inc. are all named as defendants.
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According to the lawsuit obtained by TheWrap, Nizewitz signed on to the show before it had a name. She claims she was advised of the nudity, but was assured that all frontal and genital nudity would be blurred. During one brief moment, though, during a “wrestling takedown” of her date, her crotch was allegedly flashed on the screen without blurring.
“At no time did Plaintiff consent to the use of images of her vaginal or anal nudity by Defendants,” states the suit, reiterating that she was allegedly affirmed multiple times that her private area would be fully blurred throughout the broadcast.
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The suit alleges that screenshots of the image were almost immediately shared via social media, adding to Nizewitz’s embarrassment and ridicule.
“Defendants knew or reasonably should have known that broadcasting an individual’s vagina and anus on national cable television would cause substantial and severe emotional distress,” the suit states.
Nizewitz is asking that the defendants stop using or distributing the images of her uncensored crotch, and that they remove all copies of the images from across the social media spectrum. She seeks $10 million in damages for economic losses, distress, humiliation and embarrassment as a result of defendants’ alleged breach of contract.
Nizewitz is represented in the case by Matthew J. Blit of Levine & Blit, PLLC.
Pamela Chelin contributed to this report.
