A&E Goes After Wendy Williams' Guardian For Interfering with Free Speech | TMZ Live - video Dailymotion

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Wendy Williams' guardian is taking away one of Wendy's last chances to speak directly to her fans, and she's trying to cover for her own failure to protect Wendy .. this according to a new lawsuit filed by A+E Networks.

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00:00So, we told you yesterday that the guardian of Wendy Williams is furious with A&E.

00:08She says that they have taken advantage of her.

00:12She has dementia.

00:13They exploited her with this documentary.

00:16She wants to put the kibosh on any information that comes out about her.

00:21She is now permanently disabled, according to the guardian.

00:25Well, A&E is fired back.

00:28We got these documents where A&E is essentially countersuing this woman, this guardian, saying

00:35primarily, they're saying, you know what, you're talking like we exploited, that we

00:42had no right to do this.

00:44We have a right.

00:45In fact, they mentioned the Constitution.

00:46We have a First Amendment right to do a documentary on anybody we want, even if they have dementia.

00:55And in Wendy's case, they said, look, she signed an agreement saying that we could do

01:03this documentary with her.

01:05But even if we didn't, it would still be fair game.

01:08Now, what the guardian is concerned about is the way Wendy came off in the documentary.

01:14Here is a little bit.

01:15Did you eat something or did you have a liquid lunch because I came into your room and all

01:19of a sudden, out of nowhere, I happen to notice one of your specialty items.

01:26Did you drink this whole thing today?

01:28Yes.

01:29No.

01:30But, OK, let's just have a quick conversation about this.

01:34Don't you feel like maybe this is a bit excessive?

01:37I don't know if you need this right now.

01:39Why?

01:40Because we have a lot of business to talk about.

01:41I'm not drunk.

01:42I know you said you were drunk, but I just don't know if this is a good idea.

01:46F*** you.

01:47So you think you're perfectly fine having as many drinks as you want?

01:51Perfectly.

01:52OK.

01:53But I'm just going to put it downstairs to keep it cool.

01:55Keep it there.

01:56OK.

01:57Keep it there.

01:58Yeah.

01:59The A&E documentary, as you can see, there was some confusion early on as to what was

02:02going on with Wendy.

02:03Maybe she was drinking to excess, obviously, in that scene.

02:05But there's also some confusion that you're seeing, which now we know and her guardian

02:09has emphasized was her deteriorating mental state from dementia.

02:13And it's a progressive disease that you're watching on film.

02:16So she's trying to say, you shouldn't have run this documentary at all.

02:19A&E is saying, look, when we did the documentary, when we signed the contract, Wendy put her

02:23signature to it and she was not in that mentally incapacitated state yet.

02:27So she had the competency to sign a contract.

02:29And moreover, we're allowed to do a documentary about someone with dementia.

02:32I was going to say, even if she was, even assuming Wendy was compromised, they've said

02:38early onset dementia, aphasia, assuming she was, can they not still make, I mean, First

02:43Amendment, right?

02:44You can talk about whatever you want.

02:46That's the main point they're emphasizing is they say we have a First Amendment right

02:50to make a documentary about a person with dementia, even if that contract didn't exist,

02:55but it does.

02:56And so we're definitely on firm ground here and this lawsuit should be thrown out.

02:59That's what the countersuit is all about.

03:01And Derek, I think it matters that she's a public figure in terms of calculating all

03:06of this.

03:07It certainly matters that she's a public figure.

03:08She's someone who has covered the rules of how you cover public figures are much more

03:13lax because the person is already in the limelight.

03:15They already have a platform to respond to allegations like this.

03:17It's very different with private people and they're more protected under the law than

03:20public figures.

03:22So so ultimately the Guardian is not suing.

03:26In fact, the Guardian did try and stop A&E from from running the documentary and she

03:32failed at that.

03:34So that's that that ship has said that she refiled the lawsuit.

03:37That's what they're fighting now.

03:39That ship has sailed in terms of the TRO and the documentary did air, but then she refiled

03:43the lawsuit and is fighting A&E actively now.

03:45And there's no way that the Guardian is going to win that, that a judge would pull the documentary.

03:52I can't see any version of what's even the point now.

03:55I can't see it because what is the point?

03:57It's kind of mooted.

03:58It's out there in the world.

03:59She tried to stop its release.

04:00She lost that battle and now it's out there.

04:02She's just fighting over over whether it should have been released in the past.

04:05I mean, what a judge would say is if you have a claim against A&E or doing the documentary,

04:12sue them for damages.

04:13But they're not going to pull the documentary.

04:15I think you're exactly right.

04:17That documentary now lives.

04:18They are fighting to keep it out there.

04:20They say it was done responsibly.

04:21And if there's damages to be paid, I guess that's what Sabrina Morrissey, the Guardian

04:24is going after.

04:25But you're right.

04:26You can't unring that bell.

04:27In a way, they're giving it more attention to more people now.

04:30This is something that came out a year ago.

04:31Now people are talking about it.

04:33But the other reason they're talking about it is that new documents were filed where

04:37this Guardian is saying that Wendy is permanently disabled, her dementia has progressed, and

04:42they have to file papers over every few months or whatever the time period is saying where

04:49they are with guardianship.

04:51That's what always happens.

04:52And in a situation like this, the Guardian says, we don't want to put in writing.

04:57We want it redacted, at least.

05:00Her mental state currently, the state of her dementia, they want to maintain that level

05:05of privacy.

05:06And I think they could win that possibly, Derek.

05:09Oh, I agree with you.

05:11And the Guardian is trying to position herself as a protector of Wendy.

05:13So I think going forward, if there are privacy concerns now that everyone knows she has dementia,

05:17I think you're right.

05:18They could win on those elements.

05:20But the documentary exists.

05:22And A&E is saying we're allowed to run a documentary like that, even if going forward, we should

05:26be more careful about how we divulge things about our health.

05:28Hi, my name is Asia from New Jersey.

05:31And I personally think that A&E tried to do the right thing by giving Wendy the sign so

05:36they should continue with that.

05:38But it's not lost on me the fact that if this were Wendy herself running the story, she

05:42would run it.

05:43Yeah, I actually think I agree with you on that.

A&E Goes After Wendy Williams' Guardian For Interfering with Free Speech | TMZ Live

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