Golzar Amirmotazedi, who is suing MTV for her depiction on ‘The Real World D.C.’

Part of the fun of pretty much any installment of MTV’s long-running series The Real World is the interaction between the roommates and the locals of whichever city the producers chose for that season. There’s bound to be drinking, making out, fighting and maybe even sex — all of it caught on camera. Everyone knows this by now. But one local woman who appeared on The Real World D.C. now claims she didn’t know that, and is suing MTV and the show’s producers for invading her privacy and causing her emotional distress. For her suffering, she’s demanding $5 million.

In the suit, Golzar Amirmotazedi, 22, says that during one episode, cast members Andrew and Josh plied her with alcohol at a bar, brought her home, kicked her out after she refused sex and then proceeded to make fun of her. As a consequence of her brief appearance on one of the episodes (our recap of the episode in question is here; it’s the second of the two), the suit claims that Amirmotazedi was subject to ridicule in online forums, lost her self-esteem and became depressed, left her job and was denied other employment, had trouble sleeping, and suffered from nausea.

You’d figure that as long as MTV has been making The Real World, they’d have a developed a pretty airtight release to protect against lawsuits of this kind. And they do. The four-page release (a .PDF version is here) the show’s producers have everyone who might appear on the show sign covers everything from how they can use the footage to a very distinct warning that any STDs contracted from sex with cast members are the sole responsibility of the person who contracts them. Two people we spoke to who didn’t even appear on the show when it aired verified that they were asked to sign such a release, even though they only briefly appeared on camera.