‘The Price Is Right’ Models’ Set to Tell Their Story Against Bob Barker in Movie Theaters

The Price Is Right models who spoke out against former host Bob Barker are getting the big screen treatment.

The Gotham Group production company gained the TV and film rights to the 2024 Business Insider article, “The Unsung Warriors of The Price is Right,” by David Kushner, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

Ellen Goldsmith-Vein, founder of The Gotham Group, along with Eric Robinson, Ross Siegel, and Kushner, will produce the program. This is set to be different from the Dirty Rotten Scandals special that aired in March, detailing the unfair treatment of the models and how they claimed Barker pushed their comments aside.

“David Kushner’s reporting is exactly the kind of deeply human, culturally resonant story we look for,” Goldsmith-Vein and Robinson told THR. “Holly Hallstrom and the women who stood with her are genuine American heroes, and their fight deserves to be told on the largest possible stage.”

The models in the 1970s and 80s were dubbed “Barker’s Beauties.” They were led by Hallstrom and Kathleen Bradley, who spoke out against the former host. They and other models claimed the women endured years of misogynistic behaviour, sexual harassment, and racial discrimination.

Bradley sued Barker after being unjustly fired from The Price Is Right in 2000. She claimed that a stagehand got handsy with her backstage while putting on her microphone. After Bradley reported him, no action was taken.

“We all refused to lie to save Barker’s ass,” she said in the docuseries.

Hallstrom was later sued by Barker for defamation over her allegation that he had an affair with model Dian Parkinson. Barker dropped the lawsuit, but Hallstrom turned around and sued him again for malicious prosecution. She wound up living in her car after she wouldn’t sign the NDA and couldn’t afford to stay in the lawsuit, so she had to settle. “I was not going to do that,” Hallstrom said in the series.

Reps for Barker denied that the former host did anything wrong. Former showrunner Roger Dobkowitz said that the models who spoke out against Barker “happily exaggerate and create falsehoods in order to justify a personal, hateful vendetta against a person in order to draw attention to themselves.”

“I’m thrilled to not only have this story and these extraordinary women in such good hands, but to be part of bringing it to the screen myself,” Kushner said. A release date has not yet been announced for the untitled project.

The Price Is Right, weekdays, 11a/10c, CBS, stream next day on Paramount+