Exotic Dancer Advances Defamation Suit Over HBO ‘Wire’ Follow-Up

An exotic dancer depicted in the HBO docudrama “We Own This City” may proceed with claims that the network defamed her by falsely implying she engaged in prostitution with a police officer, a federal trial court ruled.

The plaintiff, Shanea Daniel, is a Black female exotic dancer with dwarfism who performs in Baltimore, where the show takes place. She asserts that she was “one of only two known exotic dancers diagnosed with dwarfism who performed in the greater Baltimore area from 2015 to 2017,” and that there “is no other person who possesses the identifying characteristics of the corresponding character ...