Isabella Barrett Toddlers and Tiaras - P 2012
TLCTLC’s Toddler’s & Tiaras has repeatedly come under fire from the media for featuring young girls in suggestive outfits performing even more suggestive routines for pageant competitions.
But, now, it’s the media who’s getting into trouble.
The mother of five-year-old Isabella Barrett, Susanna, filed a $30 million lawsuit against TMZ, Huffington Post and Daily Mail Online, for running stories that she says “sexualize” her child, CNN reports.
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The suit comes after TMZ published a video of Isabella performing LMFAO’s “Sexy and I Know It” at an event in New York City.
As with other clips from Tiaras, including the video of a three-year-old dressed as Julia Roberts’ prostitute character in Pretty Woman, the video gained steam and was posted by multiple outlets.
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But, Susanna alleges that reports of the location of her daughter’s performance being a nightclub are untrue. Instead, it was “a pet friendly charity even at an American bistro restaurant in New York City at 7:19 p.m.,” Susanna told CNN in a statement. “It was a private well-lit event with vendor tables and pets in attendance.”
Furthermore, Susanna has made it her mission to clear her daughter’s name. In the lawsuit, she claims TMZ, et. all “brazenly attempt to sexualize” Isabella, “falsely claim that she was gyrating in a night club and singing about her six appeal.”
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“On the contrary, it is the Defendants, who, through their Articles, have thrust these false and vulgar characteristics on to Isabella,” the suit alleges, continuing, “Isabella is now perceived sexually, erotically and pornographically by the readership of the Articles.”
No mention of the irony of Isabella’s song choice.
Watch the performance below
