Reality TV has significantly contributed to the recent devolution of American society, and one of the worst offenders is an abomination known as Wife Swap. That’s why we were thrilled to learn that this month’s hero is suing the show’s network, ABC, for $100 million.
Alicia Guastaferro, the teen beauty queen who was featured on the show two years ago, is also seeking an order to rescind any purported contract, alleging negligence, civil rights violations, and defamation. She charges in her suit that the producers staged scenes to “maximize her public embarrassment” by making her look like a spoiled brat.
According to court papers, the 18-year-old Guastaferro claims she’s been “subject to public ridicule and scorn, irreparable damage to her reputation, death threats, harassment, physical assaults at school, and severe emotional distress” since the show aired. The former Little Miss Buffalo also says that she had to transfer schools in upstate New York and has gone from the honor roll to being a special education student.
Some may blame the “princess of pageantry’s” academic downfall on her mother, Karen Guastaferro, who proudly admitted and demonstrated how she did Alicia’s homework because Alicia “doesn’t have time.” However, we wholeheartedly agree that ABC is the real culprit behind Alicia’s epic scholastic slide. After all, everyone knows television makes you stupid.
ABC is also completely responsible for giving the rest of the world the impression that Alicia is a spoiled brat. Just because they paid the Guastaferros $20,000 to feature their pageant-centered family in a reality show that’s notorious for playing up people’s eccentricities, it doesn’t give them the right to make the family look eccentric.
Furthermore, how could an honor roll student like Alicia have known that the things she said and did on camera during the show’s taping would be taken at face value by millions of viewers? What American teenager fully grasps the concept of “reality TV”? Maybe if someone had explained that to her before taping began, she wouldn’t have famously offered the line “I do feel sorry for people that are not gorgeous people.”
It seems no one explained that concept to Alicia’s parents, either. After all, they wouldn’t have knowingly partnered with ABC in painting Alicia as an overly pampered princess.
For instance, had Karen been aware of how viewers would interpret her statements, she never would have uttered on camera many of the things she said, like “I feel the way to Alicia’s happiness is, give her everything she wants. Don’t give her any rules. Why upset her?” Also, she probably would have cut her usage of the world “sparkle” (in reference to Alicia) to about a mere dozen times.
Now some may question the real motive behind the lawsuit, pointing to the fact that Alicia’s parents pled guilty in November to felony money laundering charges stemming from a Canadian telemarketing scheme. Karen faces up to 16 months in jail, while Alicia’s dad Ralph could spend almost 5 years behind bars.
Rest assured, though, that Alicia’s demand for compensation is just. According to her attorney David Retner, Alicia is seeking the $100 million not just to compensate her for pain and suffering caused by ABC, but also to punish the producers of the show in order to prevent such unfair treatment from happening to another child.
Alicia Guastaferro
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