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Labor Pains: Lawsuit Hits OctoMom About Filming Her Kids
No, she won't just go away: Nadya Suleman, aka OctoMom, is keeping her name in the press thanks to a pair of lawsuits going on in Orange County regarding her children and their being filmed. "A child-labor activist has filed suit against Suleman in Orange County Superior Court, alleging that video shot of her children violates a law aimed at protecting child entertainers from overwork. The suit seeks to create an independent trust for the children," LA Now reports.
To counter, Suleman has filed papers "seeking to throw out the lawsuit," which will be decided down the line by the judge. The issue of children being filmed for "reality" television and whether that violates child labor laws has also been widely debated recently following the media blitz surrounding the marriage and careers of TLC's Jon and Kate Plus 8. Suleman, however, has not yet secured a deal for a show about her family of 14 children and her role as their single parent, though her ambition to do so is well established.
Suleman and her brood have been no strangers to legal matters, with state agencies, labor officials, and even local authorities have responded to calls and allegations regarding the family before the eight babies were even born. OctoMom's fertility specialist has faced investigation, and now Radar Online--Suleman's official media platform for now--has recently been cited by the state "for failure to obtain an entertainment permit, failure to have an entertainment permit on file, failure to have a studio teacher on site and allowing the babies to be available for filming beyond the hours allowed."