The Princess on the Witness Stand: Irina Yusupova vs. MGM

What does it cost to blur the line between truth and fiction? A lot, as it turns out.

When I was little, I never understood why movies about real people featured the following disclaimer: “Any similarity to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events, is purely coincidental.”

It was a blatant lie. Of course Elliott Ness in The Untouchables wasn’t made-up. Neither was Howard Hughes in The Aviator.

So why does that disclaimer exist?

Because of a series of bad decisions that can be traced back to – wait for it – Rasputin and the fall of the Russian empire.

This is the story of the movie "Rasputin and the Empress" - and the Russian princess who sued MGM for defamation based largely on one infamous scene that movie contained.

#hollywoodhistory #yusupov #russianhistory

CHAPTERS
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00:00 Opening
0:35 With a Friend Like This, Who Needs Enemies?
03:48 Meet Felix
06:50 Hooray for Hollywood
10:50 The Show Must Go On
13:37 Disputin'
17:07 And the Oscar Goes To...
20:12 Lawyer Up
27:28 Stranger Than Fiction
36:39 "Monsters Out of My Head"

SOURCES
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You can find all my sources listed here, on the accompanying blog post:
https://girlinthetiara.com/irina-yusu...


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ABOUT THE GIRL IN THE TIARA
----------------------------------------------------
I tell stories about tiaras and the fascinating royal women who wore them. Join me as I follow these tiaras across generations and countries, through wars and revolutions and—sometimes—into darkness and disappearance and destruction.

This isn't the kind of history your professor lectured about. Instead, think of this as conversational history, like a mash-up of Drunk History and The Crown. Yes, there's a little swearing. There's also humor and heart and a boatload of compassion for these amazing royal women.

ABOUT ME
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I never intended to start a channel or a website about tiaras and royal history. But a midlife crisis forced me to re-examine my life. I gave up fiction writing after self-publishing 9 of the 10 books I'd written and earning next to nothing.

Instead of the misery of marketing books, I turned to my first love...royal history. So here I am, a 40-something burnout, trying to start over by recapturing her love of history, royal women, and their jewels.