Former Fugees member Pras Michel is being sued by three homeless people over his 2007 documentary Skid Row.
Michelle Hassan, Wesley Bolden and Terrell Brown claim Michel disguised himself as a homeless man to “star” in the film, which chronicles the rapper’s nine-day experience living in the 50-square-block Skid Row section of downtown Los Angeles in 2006.
Michel, along with his film crew, go undercover to document the experience using surveillance cameras.
According to the suit, which was filed Friday (March 13) in Los Angeles Superior Court, Hassan, Bolden and Brown say the rapper’s “actions” in the Skid Row film made the “dehumanization and sadness” of their homelessness even tougher.
Despite living in tents and other “meager” dwellings in Skid Row, the trio add that they still expected to have privacy at home as they tried to “shield their families…from the dire nature of their circumstances.”
Nevertheless, Michel pretended to be one of the homeless as he gained their trust and “filmed those circumstances over a period of 10 years,” adding that the Screen Media Films co-produced feature can now be watched by the plaintiffs’ families as Hassan and Bolden have apparently made it off the streets.
Hassan, Bolden, and seek a declaration affirming their claim that they never approved the entertainer’s use of their images as well as profits from the documentary.