Nun sues Sister Act filmmakers for $1 billion


D.I.S.H.
Harlem nun claims Sister Act is based on her life story




September 4, 2012

A nun who claims her life story was made into the Whoopi Goldberg movie Sister Act is suing the Walt Disney Company for $1 billion.

TheWrap reports that Queen Mother Dr. Delois Blakely of New York City's Franciscan Handmaids of Mary Convent in Harlem claims her life story inspired the original film, plus its sequel and the Broadway musical based on the movie.

Sister Act, she claims, used her 'actual life experiences without her permission or authorization, thereby irreparably damaging her by depriving her of the windfall of financial gain reaped by defendants," according to the suit.

"The subplots actualized in the said motion picture Sister Act and portrayed by Whoopi Goldberg are her real life experiences," reads the claim.

Blakely is now suing Disney as well as Touchstone Pictures, which is owned by the studio.

The Sister first sued the companies, along with producer Scott Rudin and Sony Pictures in late 2011, but dropped that first suit this past January.

According to The Hollywood Reporter, Blakely claims she published her autobiography The Harlem Street Nun in 1987 and tried to have Tri Star Pictures turn her story into a movie.

Blakely wrote in her initial complaint that, like Goldberg's character in the film, she was a "young, Black, singing nun serving the street people and youths of Harlem,' when producer Scott Rudin brought a Sister Act type project from Tri Star to Disney.

The movie, released in 1992 and co-starring the delightful Maggie Smith and Kathy Najimy, was a smash, grossing more than $230 million at the box office.

[[Image: Touchstone Home Entertainment)