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A New York mother of two who told her controversial story about being abducted by aliens from her downtown apartment in an upcoming Netflix docuseries says the streaming giant ended up portraying her as a fabulist — and now she's fighting to to prevent the series from being published.

Linda Napolitano, who first told her story under the pseudonym Linda Cortile, has long claimed that three gray bipedal creatures pulled her out of her 12th-floor window in a beam of blue light in the early hours of November 30, 1989, and landed on her Ground lifted reddish-orange spaceship speeding rapidly toward the Brooklyn Bridge.

The late artist and UFO investigator Budd Hopkins represented Napolitano's story in the 1997 book Witness: The True Story of the Brooklyn Bridge Kidnappingwhich caused great interest and of course a certain amount of skepticism. Hopkins said he became even more convinced that Napolitano was telling the truth after receiving a letter from two bodyguards who said they had been nearby to protect an unnamed “world leader” when she saw a woman through the saw an alien spaceship floating in the night sky. More than 20 other witnesses said they also witnessed Napolitano's alleged kidnapping.

Now 77-year-old Napolitano is trying to stop Netflix from publishing his side of the alleged incident. The alien abduction in Manhattanset to premiere Wednesday, claims it is “a tale of skepticism” and an examination of Napolitano's “deviousness (Hopkins),” rather than a credulous rendition of her claims, according to a high-profile lawsuit filed by The Independent.

“A woman claims she was kidnapped from her Manhattan bedroom,” a Netflix promo reads. “This documentary examines the question of whether it was an elaborate forgery – or evidence of extraterrestrial life.”

In an email, an appreciative Napolitano seemed eager to provide more details about the situation, but said, “Apparently my lawyer doesn't want me to comment,” and provided his email address and phone number.

Reached by phone Tuesday, attorney Robert Young said The Independent that Napolitano was “egregiously deceived” and would never have taken part in the production if she had known how it would ultimately turn out.

“So, we’ll see,” Young said. “Litigation is a long war, many battles, and I am confident we will prevail in the end.”

Netflix did not respond to requests for comment.

Napolitano, her complaint says, was defamed on screen by Hopkins' She claims the late ex-wife was a “bitter, alcoholic ex-wife bent on revenge against her husband.”

This miniseries was the ex's “final death act of retaliation to get revenge on her ex-husband rather than reveal the actual truth as it was investigated and described…” Witness“says the lawsuit filed Monday in the New York State Supreme Court.

Hopkins' ex is said to have been annoyed that her husband had “ignored” “discrediting elements” in Napolitano's story. In 2011, Hopkins' ex-wife published an article debunking the idea of ​​alien abductions and harshly criticizing his research methodology. To this end, psychiatrists who have studied the phenomenon say that there are numerous reasons why people might believe they have been abducted by aliens, such as people suffering from a fantasy-prone personality disorder or survivors of sexual assault, the so-called Creating screen memories to block out the trauma they endured.

The film's London-based producers assured Napolitano in their lawsuit that they intended to tell “the true story of Linda's abduction” as set out in Hopkins' book. According to the complaint, this led Napolitano, who says she had long been hesitant about appearing in the film, to believe that her version of events “would actually finally be presented.”

However, Napolitano insists she was misled from the start. Producers went with a different version of what she agreed to, instead portraying Hopkins' ex as an “expert 'skeptic' in the field.” Her questioning of Napolitano's report only served to cast “slander” on her with “twisted dialogue” supporting what they said amounted to a false narrative, the complaint said, and further targeted the “unflattering and derogatory” costumes Napolitano was allowed to wear on screen.

According to Napolitano's complaint, Hopkins' ex-wife provided the filmmakers with his personal papers, notes and videos about her alleged kidnapping, but also “forged a letter … in which she claimed (Napolitano) that the entire incident was a fabrication.” But Napolitano claims that Hopkins' ex, who died in 2023, “stole” the materials he had about her case after the two separated but still lived in the same house. (The two divorced in 2006.)

Napolitano says she would never have taken part in the project if she had known that the producers would rely on “misrepresentations” of what she believes happened to her and that they would have taken advantage of her naivety in filmmaking to get her to encourage cooperation. It wasn't until an employee attended a screening of the miniseries in the United Kingdom in mid-September that she realized something was wrong, the lawsuit says.

Napolitano's complaint alleges, among other things, that she was shown “in a grotesque and unusual manner, in unflattering clothing that did not correspond to her own style of dress, she appeared old and emaciated, and her hair was styled in an unusual manner” not her own, therefore “She appears not as herself but as a caricature, an almost cartoon-like character.” She claims she was forced to read from a script and was exposed as a liar based on the confession, which she now insists never did.

In her complaint, Napolitano argues that she has been portrayed as a “villain for the purposes of controversy and conflict,” supporting a narrative that she says will “expose her to shame and ridicule and destroy her reputation as an honest and decent person.” , who experienced the kidnapping. “I just agreed that this documentary about her experiences will be told truthfully… for the very first time.”

Napolitano alleges defamation and fraud, with punitive and exemplary damages to be determined in court. She insists that the end result was “patently false” and that the producers never intended to present “a documentary based on a true story.” Overall, Napolitano's complaint states that her behavior was “reckless, deceitful and oppressive” and despicable, and that if the miniseries were released, “no amount of compensation” could possibly make up for the reputational damage she would suffer.

Napolitano is asking a judge to issue an injunction to prevent Netlifx from broadcasting The alien abduction in Manhattanmake public comments or issue press releases regarding the reasons for cancellation or post statements on social media. Napolitano's lawyers said a decision is expected Wednesday.