In 1932, MGM released a movie called Rasputin and the Empress which was about, not surprisingly, Rasputin a/k/a "The Mad Monk" and an empress. It was the only film starring all three Barrymore siblings--John, Ethel, and Lionel.
In the movie, Rasputin seduces a character named Princess Natasha who becomes his eager mistress, but the relationship eventually turns sour when he rapes her. A real Russian Princess, Irina Romanoff Youssoupoff, and her husband claimed that Natasha was modeled after Princess Irina. They sued MGM for invasion of privacy and libel. The plaintiffs collected a large sum as a result of the litigation (reports vary on what the actual amount of money was).
MGM cut all reference to the rape from future releases of the movie, which created a major continuity problem in that a viewer would have no idea why Natasha suddenly turns from loving Rasputin to fearing him.
This incident is what provoked all movie studios thereafter to insert the statement, "This picture is a work of fiction. The characters and events portrayed in this motion
picture are entirely fictional. Any resemblance to any persons, whether living or
dead is entirely coincidental." This disclaimer even appears in many films which are clearly not works of fiction and where the resemblance to actual persons is in fact intended.
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