Abilene Cooper Claims Kathryn Stockett Stole Her Life as a Maid & Made it into Blockbuster Disney Movie "The Help"

Abilene Cooper says Kathryn Stockett is a racist who stole her life as a maid for her family and made it into a bestselling book and blockbuster Disney movie "The Help."

The drama continues with the blockbuster movie, "The Help," as Abilene Cooper, a former maid for the family of bestselling author Kathryn Stockett, claims in a lawsuit, that the book was all about her experiences as a maid. Well, as a writer, I do draw on real-life experiences, as most do. That doesn't mean Ms. Stockett owes Abilene Cooper anything. The movie, which has held the No. 1 spot at the box office for two weeks and counting, is based on the lives of black maids in the Deep South in the 1960s, during the racially charged, segregationist period in America's history. Ms. Cooper says, 'I think she is just a racist. She claims she respects black people but she just ran all over me.’ Abilene Cooper also lived in Jackson, Mississippi and spent much of her life working in white households, including the households of Kathryn Stockett's brother and sister-in-law, where she was a maid and nanny for 12 years. She said she is angry and devastated at Ms. Stockett using her life experience as the backdrop for her book and blockbuster movie.

‘Kathryn spelt my name wrong, but they pronounce it exactly the same way in the book and the film. I introduced myself to Kathryn when I first met her at her brother’s house that way: ‘‘Aib-e-leen”. Kathryn has Aibileen teaching the white folks’ baby girl to call her ‘‘Aib-ee”. That’s what I taught Kathryn’s niece and nephew to call me because they couldn’t manage Abilene. ‘I just cried and cried after I read the first few pages. 

In the book, Aibileen has taken her job five months after her son is killed in an accident. My son, Willie, had leukaemia and died when he was 18, in July 1998, three months before I went to work for the Stocketts. ‘I felt the emotions in my heart all over again. Kathryn copied parts of my life and used them without even asking me.’ In the book, Aibileen is a deeply religious woman who sports a gold tooth and a gold cross, as does the real-life Abilene. 

The real Abilene started work just a few years later, for an employer with the same obsession with ‘coloured germs’ that led the fictional Aibileen’s boss to build a lavatory in her carport for the help. Source

Ms. Cooper said she never told Kathryn Stockett about herself, but she may have learned about her through her brother Rob and her sister-in-law Carroll. If Ms. Stockett relied on Ms. Cooper's experiences heavily in her book, then she may be on the hook for some money. It's a little ironic that she came up with the lavatory incident, unless it was common knowledge then. Wow, there is a slight resemblance between Abilene Cooper and Viola Davis. I loved the movie and would watch it again. I hope they can work this out without too much collateral damage to both parties.