A Los Angeles judge on Friday dismissed a request from more than a dozen people who wanted to block or edit parts of a Netflix documentary about a wellness company known for ‘orgasmic meditation’ due to allegations that it might have included “hijacked” sexually explicit material.
Los Angeles Superior Court Judge James Chalfant said the group of 15 – described in a lawsuit filed late last month as people formerly affiliated with the OneTaste company – did not provide any proof that the film includes explicit elements showing them.
They also didn’t show that the movie “Orgasm Inc.” could harm them irreparably, Chalfant said, according to a court order.
The order paves the way for the film’s release on Saturday.
A lawyer for the plaintiffs declined to comment. A Netflix spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment, nor did the film’s director, Sarah Gibson.
In a statement filed Friday, Gibson said the film was investigating “troublesome allegations” about the company. Much of the film’s archival video is non-sexual, but sourced from social events, conferences, and OneTaste promotional material.
The film does not show any private orgasmic meditation, or OM, sessions, nor does it depict the plaintiffs — who are only identified as “Doe” in the complaint — engaged in the practice, Gibson said.
It also does not contain images of the complainants’ genitals or depict them engaging in a sexual act, she said in the statement.
The suit had sought a temporary restraining order against Netflix that would have halted the distribution of the plaintiffs’ private, sexually explicit materials — or required the company to blur those images.
The complaint also alleged privacy violations and intrusion into private affairs. The status of these allegations was not immediately clear.
The lawsuit was filed after a group of more than 400 people currently or formerly affiliated with OneTaste sent a petition to Netflix in September demanding “privacy and protection.”
“We were recently horrified to learn that the producers of Netflix illegally purchased footage of us, and/or footage of us, and/or audio of us with the intention of using it in a movie from profit,” the petition reads, adding, “Some of these classes were intimate to us and portions of the material may depict some of us in various stages of undressing, in OM practice or in other contexts. In some cases, this includes extreme close-ups of our genitals.
The complaint alleged that a former OneTaste videographer had “misappropriated” recordings intended for educational and internal instructional purposes.
Ex-videographer Chris Kosley is also named in the suit. In a text message Friday, he declined to comment on the allegation, citing a separate court case involving OneTaste.
“However, I am confident that when my arguments have been made, the truth will prevail in this case and OneTaste’s actions will be seen for what they are: an attempt to silence my voice and silence the voices of others with a valid and important story to share with the public,” Kosley said.
In a statement provided by a spokesperson for OneTaste on Friday, a woman who signed the petition said she was shocked that such a “gross violation of privacy is so open and closed. And that a titan of corporate media could close what I thought was an open and closed deal.”
“Netflix has no right to violate our bodies or our privacy for its own benefit,” she said. “We never consented to be in this movie.”
OneTaste was founded in 2005 to promote what the company describes as “desire-based living.”
A 2020 podcast series on the BBC described the business as an “orgasm cult”. A lengthy report in Bloomberg Businessweek described OneTaste as “a kind of prostitution ring – a ring that exploits trauma victims and others seeking healing.”
The company pushed back on the characterizations, suing the BBC for defamation in an ongoing case and describing Bloomberg’s portrayal as “unrecognizable”.
This article originally appeared on NBCNews.com
#Judge #Denies #Request #Block #Sexually #Explicit #Imagery #Netflixs #Orgasmic #Meditation #Documentary