The Help author Kathryn Stockett facing lawsuit from family maid
The New York Times is reporting that Atlanta-based author Kathryn Stockett is facing a lawsuit from a woman employed by her brother and sister-in-law
- COURTESY VANITY FAIR
- Kathryne Stockett, far right with hat, in a recent Vanity Fair photoshoot
The New York Times is reporting that Atlanta-based author Kathryn Stockett is facing a lawsuit from a woman employed by her brother and sister-in-law:
Ablene Cooper, a 60-year-old woman who has long worked as a maid, has filed a lawsuit against Kathryn Stockett, the author of the best-selling novel, “The Help,” about black maids working for white families in Jackson in the 1960s.
In the complaint, Ms. Cooper argues that one of the book’s principal characters, Aibileen Clark, is an unauthorized appropriation of her name and image, which she finds emotionally distressing. ...
The lawsuit alleges that the author was “asked not to use the name and likeness of Ablene” before the book was published, though it does not specify who did the asking. Ms. Cooper said that Ms. Stockett, whose daughter she once babysat, has never approached her about the book.
The Help has experienced a degree of success that debut novelists rarely, if ever, achieve. Since being published in 2009, it has sold over two million copies and been adapted into a Dreamworks film to be released in August. Stockett was awarded Georgia's Townsend Prize last year.
The Times blog seems to suggest that the lawsuit may be motivated in part by Stockett's relatives, some of whom have cut off communication with Stockett since the book's release.