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Samantha Barbash

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Samantha Barbash
Jennifer Lopez played a character based on Samantha Barbash, in the film hustlers.
Jennifer Lopez played a character based on Samantha Barbash, in the film hustlers.
Born 1973 (age 52–53)
Nationality USA
Other names Samantha Foxxxx[1]
Occupation bar hostess, author
Known for incidents from her life were dramatized into the movie Hustlers

Samantha Barbash is a former bar hostess.[2][3][4] She received a sentence of five years probation for masterminding a scheme to run up the credit cards of clients who were too drunk or high to realize what was happening. The activities that lead to her arrest, and the arrest of her friends, was described in an article by Jessica Pressler, published in New York Magazine, in 2015, and made into the movie Hustlers, in 2019.[5] Barbash hass written her own memoirs, entitled Underscore.[6][7]

Barbash started working in bars in 1992, when she was nineteen.[2] Accounts differ, but Barbash says she was never a stripper, only a hostess. Barbash met Roselyn Keo around 2007, and helped the younger woman navigate the details of how best to earn money in a club.

Many of their biggest spending clients were highly paid Wall Street brokers.[2] After the Wall Street bubble collapsed it took more effort for Barbash, Keo and their friends to make money. So they started calling old clients, suggesting they meet up, in an ordinary bar or restaurant, for an ordinary date. However, at a key point, when the target was intoxicated enough to be suggestible, her friends would arrive, and suggest they go to a strip club. They had arrangements with certain strip clubs to get a generous kickback from the target's credit card bill. Once in a private room, at the strip club they would call rack up expensive charges on the target's credit card. Sometimes they would covertly drug the target to make him suggestible. The drug cocktail they used would also wipe the evening from the target's memory.

Keo would later describe how they figured that, even if the target found the bill inexplicably large, they would be reluctant to make waves, because it would require explaining their secret indulgences to the Police, to their wives, and often their employers, since the charges were often to corporate credit cards.[2] In 2014 one of their targets, a cardiologist, who was self-employed, thus didn't have to explain going to strip clubs to an employer, who was unmarried, and thus didn't have to explain himself to his wife, did make waves. He refused to pay his $135,000 credit card charges, and his credit card company's investigation eventually concluded the charges were fraudulent. New York City Police and the Drug Enforcement Agency asked for his help, and the team were charged, and eventually convicted, after arriving at plea deals.

According to Fox Business, following her conviction Barbash opened a spa that offered cosmetic procedures and plastic surgery.[7]

In April, 2019, Barbash told the New York Post she was going to try to stop the film's release, because it defamed her, and the producers did not acquire the rights to tell her story.[8] In April Barbash said she was flattered Jennifer Lopez was playing her.[9] But, by the time the film was released she said that Cardi B, who played a smaller role in the film, would have been a better choice.

Barbash sued Lopez's production company, for $40 million on January 7, 2020.[10][11] Barbash said she still respects Lopez, personally.[12] Her case was dismissed, in December 2020, on the grounds the film was a work of fiction.[13]

References

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  1. ↑ "The Real Scam Behind 'Hustlers' Happened All Over New York City". Bustle magazine.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 Jessica Pressler (December 2015). "The hustlers at Scores". The Cut. Retrieved 2019-09-18. Samantha, born Samantha Barbash, was one of Hustler’s top moneymakers. A single mother from the Bronx, she’d started dancing at 19, and, like an ornamental plant purposefully stunted to conform to a certain ideal, she’d been shaped by the industry in which she grew up. Her body was Jessica Rabbit curvy, her lips Angelina Jolie puffy; her hair, which concealed tattoos of a cascade of stars running down her neck, was Cleopatra black. Buried within this ultrafeminine package was a mercenary streak worthy of Gordon Gekko.
  3. ↑ Julie Miller (2019-09-17). ""I Wasn't That Impressed": Hustlers' Real-Life Ramona Reviews the Film". Vanity Fair. Retrieved 2019-09-18. 'I decided not to because I wasn’t going to give my film rights away…They were trying to pay me a minuscule amount,' Barbash said in a phone call with Vanity Fair on Monday. 'I’m a businesswoman. J. Lo doesn’t work for free. Why would I? At the end of the day, I have bags that are worth more than what they wanted to pay me.' (A representative for STX, the production company behind Hustlers, declined to comment on Barbash’s account.)
  4. ↑ Margaret Abrams (2019-09-17). "Who is Samantha Barbash? The real life true story the Hustlers movie is based on". The Evening Standard. New York City. Retrieved 2019-09-18. Barbash was on probation for five years after pleading guilty of conspiracy, assault and grand larceny. She’s now claiming that Lopez and producers did not secure the rights to her life story.
  5. ↑ Josh Margolin; Jennifer Joseph; Allie Yang (2019-09-11). "The real-life 'Hustlers' who lured men into NYC strip clubs to swindle them out of thousands: 'Little by little, you find yourself doing things that sound crazy' ByJOSH MARGOLIN, JENNIFER JOSEPHandALLIE YANGSep 11, 2019-09-11". ABC News. Retrieved 2019-09-18. Jessica Pressler, a contributing editor at New York Magazine, wrote “The Hustlers at Scores” article about this fishing ring, which was published in 2015. From her reporting, Pressler told ABC News that the women concocted a drug cocktail that consisted of 'Just a sprinkle of MDMA and ketamine.' line feed character in |title= at position 162 (help)
  6. ↑ Rebekah Kuschmider (2019-09-17). "Meet Samantha Foxxx — The Real Stripper Behind JLo's 'Hustler' Character". Your Tango. Retrieved 2019-09-18. Barbash didn't participate in the film herself, saying it wasn't fully accurate. Instead, she wrote a book called Underscore, telling her version of the story.
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 Jeanette Settembre (2019-09-04). "Samantha Barbash, stripper who inspired J-Lo 'Hustlers' movie, blows lid off CEO spending". Fox Business. Retrieved 2019-09-18. She’s the inspiration behind Jennifer Lopez’s character in the upcoming movie “Hustlers,” which follows street-smart former strip club employees out for revenge on their Wall Street clients.
  8. ↑ Joe Marino; Larry Celona; Natalie O'Neill (2019-04-03). "Strip club scammer claims Jennifer Lopez stole her life story for 'Hustlers'". New York Post. Retrieved 2019-09-18. She told The Post she plans to sue the production company behind the flick, STX Entertainment, and the Bronx-bred pop diva-turned-movie star.
  9. ↑ James Beal; Georgette Culley (2019-04-06). "Real-life sex and drug hustlers behind JLo's new movie rinsed thousands of dollars out of Wall Street traders". news.com.au. Retrieved 2019-09-18. JLo was snapped as filming began in New York last week — and speaking exclusively to The Sun, former stripper Samantha, 44, said last night: 'I’m really flattered Jennifer wants to play me. But if she wants to do it, she should talk to me. Everyone who knows me knows the truth.'
  10. ↑ Jerry Brown (2020-08-17). "New York strippers stole thousands of dollars from clients: 20/20 on ID investigates the real life Hustlers". Monsters and Critics. Retrieved 2020-10-16. Brabash later tried to sue the movie production company as she was unhappy at the portrayal of her character in the film.
  11. ↑ [https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51032332 https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-56793091 "'Real-life Hustler' Samantha Barbash sues over Jennifer Lopez film"] Check |url= value (help). BBC News. 2020-01-08. Retrieved 2026-01-28. line feed character in |url= at position 53 (help)
  12. ↑ Alexia Fernandez (2020-01-07). "Ex-Stripper Who Inspired Jennifer Lopez's Hustlers Character Sues Producers for $40 Million". People magazine. Retrieved 2020-10-16. Barbash is seeking $20 million in compensatory damages and $20 million in punitive damages.
  13. ↑ "Jennifer Lopez's Production Company Beats $40 Million Hustlers Lawsuit". E! Online. 2020-11-13. Archived from the original on 2026-01-30. Retrieved 2026-01-28.
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