14 DAY TRIAL // In October 2013, VH1 aired what would turn out to be a very controversial made-for-TV biopic, on one of the greatest and most successful girl bands of all times, TLC, called “CrazySexyCool: The TLC Story.”
The movie wasn’t what you’d expect from a biopic and it really didn’t play out like a film in the most basic sense of the word, but it pleased fans to no end because they perceived it as a tribute: a tribute to TLC and a tribute to the music and the fashion of the time.
The one person who was not pleased with it – at all! – was Perri “Pebbles” Reid, the real-life former manager of the TLC girls, T-Boz, Lisa “Left Eye” Lopes and Chilli. Right after the film aired, she threatened the 2 surviving members of TLC, T-Boz and Chilli, real names Tionne Watkins and Rozonda Thomas, to issue a retraction on the story or she would sue.
The film was made with their approval, so that’s why Reid took the issue to them and not to VH1 or the producers. She claimed that certain things included in it, like how she forced Chilli to get an abortion because it would damage her career and the band’s success, and how she bankrupted TLC when they were selling millions of albums, were shameless lies.
TMZ is now reporting that Reid is carrying out her threats, having just filed a lawsuit claiming the movie “assassinated her character by portraying her as a liar and a cheat, when actually she invested her time and money as TLC's manager and created one of the best-selling female groups of all time.”
The movie was pure fiction on many accounts, including those mentioned above, but it was sold as depicting real events because it was called a biopic. Reid claims that this ran her reputation into the ground – and she did nothing to deserve it.
Reid is asking for $40 million (€31.6 million) in damages. As of now, T-Boz, Chilli or VH1 are yet to address the lawsuit.