Carole Baskin Is Suing To Prevent The Release Of Netflix’s “Tiger King 2”

November 2, 2021 / Posted by:

Carole Baskin, breakout star of the 2020 Netflix docuseries Tiger King. Big cat enthusiast. Living meme. Floaty statement blouse aficionado. Suspect in the disappearance of her husband. And now, the plaintiff in a lawsuit filed against the world’s largest streaming series. Carole has sued Netflix, the company responsible for launching her into the heights of pop culture notoriety known only by those relevant enough to dance amongst the stars. And it’s because Carole doesn’t want a single frame of her face to appear in Tiger King 2, which is scheduled to drop on Netflix sometime this month.

Netflix dropped Tiger King on us all on March 20, 2020, right as a whole lot of people became stuck inside their homes with not much more to do besides disinfecting all their groceries (remember when we thought that was a thing that did something?). It became a breakout hit, making overnight stars – or re-igniting an already faded luminous ball of gas – of its cast. Carole Baskin included. If I had a dollar for every DIY flower crown I saw perched atop a fried blonde $9.99 Party City wig on social media last Halloween, well – I’d have at least enough money to buy one of those wigs. Tiger King spawned an NBC adaptation of Joe Exotic’s animal rescue/abuse saga, starring John Cameron Mitchell as Joe and Kate McKinnon as the aforementioned Carole Baskin. There was almost a movie starring Nicolas Cage. Hell, you can still find tons of mugs and t-shirts on Etsy emblazoned with Carole’s catchphrase, “Hey All You Cool Cats & Kittens.” But Carole really wants no part of it, because Carole thinks she was sort of tricked into the docuseries in the first place and fully believes she was done dirty by the editing room.

According to NBC News, Carole filed a federal lawsuit with her husband, Howard Baskin, on Monday. Carole was married to Don Lewis from 1991 to 2002 when he was declared dead in absentia after mysteriously disappearing in 1997. The suit names Netflix, Royale Goode Productions, and producers Eric Goode and Rebecca Chaiklin, and seeks to prevent any footage of Carole or her husband from being used. According to the lawsuit, Carole believes she was bamboozled about the producers’ real intentions with the first Tiger King.

In the suit, Baskin says that Goode and Chaiklin, who she says first contacted her in 2014, pitched a single wildlife documentary with her and her Big Cat Rescue nonprofit as protagonists.

The suit says producers touted the involvement of “Tiger King” executive producer Fisher Stevens, who was a producer of wildlife documentary The Cove, and said that Baskin would be portrayed “as the heroine battling the cub petters.”

The producers showed Baskin a sizzle reel and rough-cut scenes that suggested “an animal welfare documentary,” her suit says.

Carole reportedly decided to file the lawsuit after seeing a trailer for the second season of Tiger King and realized that her appearance wasn’t going to be limited to the first season.

Monday’s lawsuit says producers had more than 50 hours of footage of Baskin and her surroundings and suggests they used at least some of it for Tiger King 2. The Baskins believed that any footage would be used for a “single documentary feature film” and were dismayed when a trailer suggested the Baskins would be “a central element of the sequel.” In a statement Monday, Howard Baskin said the project “is anything but a legitimate documentary.”

Netflix dropped the first trailer for Tiger King 2 last week, and it appears to catch up on everyone from the original season while Joe Exotic himself sits on a cold cement cell in prison. Joe Exotic was sentenced to 22 years after organizing a hit on his big cat nemesis Carole Baskin. Thanks to some helpful collect call narration in the trailer, we can tell that Joe is pretty pissed that everyone gets to cash in on their sudden fame while he’s in prison.

When reached for a statement, Netflix had no comment. Same with Royale Goode Productions. At the end of the trailer, Netflix announces the premiere date as November 17th. It’s not known whether they’ll be pulling it and editing out Carole and her husband, or broadcasting it as intended.

Carole and her husband are seeking money from Netflix, which – good for them, they have deep pockets, go ahead and dig your heart out! But I take issue with Carole’s lawsuit claiming she felt like she was a little tricked by producers. Carole thought Tiger King would be a classy, Oscar bait-y doc like The Cove, or Blackfish. But…starring Joe Exotic? A man who looks like a mall kiosk fleece throw blanket come to life? Carole please, at best you were looking at an MTV Movie & TV Awards nomination.

Pic: Netflix

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