The woman whose claim of a 1989 alien abduction is chronicled in a new Netflix docuseries set to be released Wednesday has sued the streamer in New York Supreme Court, claiming “The Manhattan Alien Abduction” defames her, paints her in an unflattering light and steals the work of an author who first wrote about her story more than 20 years ago.
"The Manhattan Alien Abduction" on Netflix.
Linda Napolitano and the estate of late author Budd Hopkins, who wrote the 1997 book "Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge Abduction," have sued Netflix for damages and asked a judge to halt the release of “The Manhattan Alien Abduction,” expected to hit the streamer Oct. 30.
Napolitano and Hopkins' estate filed suit on Monday against Netflix, Top Hat Productions, several people involved in the docuseries' production and the estate of Carol Rainey, Hopkins' late ex-wife who is featured in the documentary.
The Netflix docuseries seems to include several participants, including Rainey, who push back on Napolitano’s claims she was abducted, and one unnamed participant is quoted in the trailer as saying she was "pulling the wool over Budd's eyes” during the book-writing process.
The complaint alleges Netflix allowed Rainey to play a prominent part in the docuseries as an expert "skeptic" in the field when she was instead allegedly an "embittered, alcoholic ex-wife hell bent on revenge against her husband" who cast both Hopkins and Napolitano in a negative light.
Napolitano said she agreed to have her story portrayed by Netflix after she was promised only one interview with Rainey would be used and that the "true story of her abduction would finally be presented,” but was instead blindsided by a screening of the series in September.
Napolitano claims the show sets her up as "a villain for purposes of controversy and conflict," defames her persona and character and that "The Manhattan Alien Abduction” will "destroy her reputation as an honest and decent person.”
Netflix had not responded to the lawsuit in court as of Tuesday afternoon and did not immediately respond to Forbes’ request for comment.
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Carol Rainey in "The Manhattan Alien Abduction."
Linda Napolitano in "The Manhattan Alien Abduction."
Napolitano, a housewife in New York, has long claimed she was abducted by aliens and made to float mid-air in Manhattan until she entered a UFO on Nov. 30, 1989. More than a dozen witnesses came forward to support Napolitano's claim, saying they saw a woman levitating in the sky before floating into an alien spacecraft. The promotional materials for the docuseries released by Netflix says it explores whether Napolitano's story "was an elaborate hoax — or proof of alien life,” and includes Rainey’s claims she has long been frustrated by her ex-husband’s “failure to heed discrediting elements” of the claim. Napolitano's story has been told several times, first by Hopkins in his 1997 book "Witnessed: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge Abduction," as well as in the 2018 podcast "Somewhere in the Skies" and in a 2022 documentary called "Linda Napolitano: The Alien Abduction of the Century."
"It's not easy to believe, let’s face it," Napolitano says in a trailer for the Netflix docuseries. "But these aliens, if they want you, they're gonna get you."