Toddlers & Tiaras Mom Files $30 Million Libel Suit: You "Sexualized" My Daughter!

Susanna Barrett sues parent companies of TMZ, Huffington Post and London's Daily Mail for stories that allegedly claimed the 5-year-old was "singing about her sex appeal"

By Natalie Finn Jan 28, 2012 3:30 AMTags
Isabella Barrett Marc Andrew Deley/GettyImages

In case you've never watched Toddlers & Tiaras, a word of advice: Try not to tick off a pageant mom.

Susanna Barrett has filed a $30 million libel suit against the parent companies of TMZ, the Huffington Post, London's Daily Mail for their allegedly "brazen attempts to sexualize" her 5-year-old daughter, according to court documents obtained by E! News.

Who's a little creeped out?!

In her suit, filed in Manhattan Supreme Court, Barrett claims that the sites posted a video (originally a TMZ exclusive) of her daughter singing along to LMFAO's "Sexy and I Know It" in a restaurant—along with stories that blew the entire performance out of proportion.

"After this firestorm, I quickly protected my daughter by having cease and desist orders sent to most media outlets that ran the story," Barrett told CNN. "I intend to clear my daughter's name."

"That's a real catchy song," TMZ reported Barrett as saying to one of their camera guys, a couple of days after the video first went up.

But on further review...

"Isabella Barrett did not act or portray herself sexually, erotically or provocatively; she was not ‘gyrating' at a ‘nightclub' or singing ‘about her sex appeal,'" Barrett's complaint states. "She did not understand the concept of sex, let alone ‘sex appeal' and could not have been singing about her own sex appeal."

"On the contrary," the suit adds, "it is the defendants who, through their articles, have thrust these false and vulgar characteristics on to Isabella."

According to the suit, a tutu-wearing Isabella was encouraged by the DJ at a charity event to get up and lead the crowd in party-rockin' song.

Barrett is demanding $30 million because now, she claims, her little girl is "perceived sexually, erotically and pornographically." The articles' implications, she continues, "have placed Isabella in serious physical danger, attracting the attention of others who would seek to sexualize a child."

None of the defendants have responded to the suit yet.

(Originally published, Jan. 27, 2012 at 6:30 p.m. PT)