Just a couple of weeks after Starcasm broke the story of her alleged involvement in a series of adult videos, we’ve got a Gina Krasley update of a different sort. Starcasm can exclusively reveal that the controversial My 600 Lb Life star is now the fourth cast member to sue Megalomedia, the show’s production company, for negligence and and “breach[ing] their duty of reasonable care.”.
Gina is also the first member of My 600 Lb Life‘s Season 8 cast to sue. Tony Buzbee, the attorney handling each lawsuit, told us to “expect” more cast members to file lawsuits when we interviewed him in late January. But legal turnaround is particularly quick in Gina’s case. The family of deceased cast member LB Bonner, who filed the first gross negligence lawsuit, saw his episode debut in early 2018; David Bolton, who filed the second, was a Season 6 castmate of LB’s.
And earlier today, Starcasm broke the story of My 600 Lb Life Season 7’s Maja Radanovich becoming the third cast member to sue. But Gina’s lawsuit — which echoes many of the same complaints of the first three — will likely face additional viewer criticism, thanks to the way her episode ended and its subsequent fallout. After dropping only 51 pounds in nearly a year, she nearly ran out of chances with Dr. Nowzaradan, and had to have her weight loss surgery postponed.
Then, in the aftermath of our report on Gina’s apparent starring role in a series of SSBBW videos, Gina deleted or locked down every one of her many social media accounts. The formerly über-online New Jersey native hasn’t made a public post, statement, or other Gina Krasley update since.
Viewers already lined up against Gina are therefore likely to see her lawsuit as a distraction at best. However, as we pointed out above, it argues most of the same points as LB, David, and Maja’s lawsuits. The major claim continues to be that Megalomedia “acted negligently in the decelopment, production, shooting and handling of Plaintiff [Gina] as a cast member of their television show.”
As is also the case with the three earlier lawsuits, Gina’s alleges Megalomedia and the rest of the My 600 Lb Life production team “breached their duty of reasonable care” in four significant ways. From the court documents:
a. Failing to require a psychological evaluation of Plaintiff before administering an extreme weight loss diet;
b. Failing to provide adequate mental health services to Plaintiff during filming and particularly, while placing her on the extreme weight loss diet;
c. Failing to train their employees regarding depression despite the known risk of depression and suicide in those undergoing this type of extreme weight loss process;
d. Causing emotional distress to Plaintiff for the purpose of ratings despite knowledge of distress.
Elsewhere in the lawsuit, Gina accuses Megalomedia of engineering scenes of overeating specifically to make it look like she couldn’t stick to Dr. Now’s diet. “To support Defendants’ narrative,” the lawsuit reads, “they required her to eat excessive amounts of food on screen to portray her as someone who could not follow the diet. Defendants created this narrative and then for Dr. Nowzaradan to express disappointment to her for failing to follow the diet and failing to obtain the necessary amount of weight loss to be a candidate for surgery.”
(The lawsuit doesn’t say whether Gina has been filming a Where Are They Now? episode, something her My 600 Lb Life debut strongly suggested would happen. However, given the existence of the lawsuit, we’re willing to bet that there won’t be a follow-up.)
Megalomedia has yet to comment on the Gina Krasley update, or on any of the other My 600 Lb Life lawsuits beyond the Bonners’. In response to it, a rep told us the family’s allegations were “without merit” and that the company would “vigorously” defend itself in court. We’ve contacted Megalomedia about the subsequent suits and will update this article if we hear back.
(Photo credit: Gina Krasley update via TLC)
John Sharp is Starcasm’s chief editorial correspondent-at-large. Tips: E-mail john@starcasm.net or Twitter @john_starcasm.
