Shoshana Roberts, the female star of the viral video showing how many instances of verbal harassment a girl can experience on the street in one day, is suing the direct of the film, Rob Bliss.
He also happens to have been Shoshana Roberts’ boyfriend at the time.
Shoshana Roberts and her filmmaker boyfriend concocted the idea for the short film after Roberts became fed up with the way she was harassed everyday walking down the street.
In the film, Shoshana Roberts walks through numerous areas of New York City and endures catcalls. They range from “Have a good day.” and “Bless you.” to “Hey Baby!” and “Da*n!”.
One guy even chastises Shoshana Roberts for not appreciating the attention, saying, “Someone’s acknowledging you for being beautiful, you should say thank you.”
It seems the filmmaking duo has some bad blood now. Shoshana Roberts is suing Rob Bliss and Hollaback!, which is the anti-street harassment group responsible for the video, for $500,000.
She is suing them for using her likeness to promote their agenda.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HlFYJ0LCvGk
Shoshana Roberts included co-defendants Google, YouTube and TGI Friday’s in the suit and claims they failed to get her signed permission to broadcast the video before it was used to sell advertising.
The court documents state that the defendants used Shoshana Roberts’ “creative content, performance, image, likeness and persona for the purposes of advertising or trade without her prior written consent.”
For his part, Rob Bliss seems to have had good intentions going forward.
He said he wanted to show men “what street harassment looks like in plain broad daylight, how it makes people feel and leave it out there.”
He added, “For women, I wanted to empower them a bit and talk about their own personal experiences, a lot of the time street harassment is something they can’t remove themselves from.”
What do you think of Shoshana Roberts’ lawsuit against her boyfriend, Rob Bliss?