'Griselda' Debut, Featuring Sofía Vergara, Faces Controversy as Drug Lord's Son Attempts to Halt Release

"Griselda," the Netflix miniseries about the notorious drug lord, is set to debut on Thursday, January 25, but the actual son of Griselda Blanco is seeking to prevent it from happening with.

Michael Corleone Blanco, who recently announced he would release a book about his mother, filed a lawsuit accusing the show's creators of using his unreleased "artistic literary work" and likeness to "to depict the life story of himself and his mother, Griselda Blanco De Trujillo" without permission or credit.

Blanco's laywer, Elysa Galloway, told USA Today that the show's creators approached Michael Blanco to gain insight and perspective "to only turn around and act like he does not exist, in an apparent attempt to reap their own profits."

She added that Blanco was "more than willing to share his hard work and the nonpublic details of his mother's life with Latin World Entertainment/Netflix if he was to be fairly compensated."

Blanco, who was also seeking to develop a soap opera about his mother, sought a temporary injunction to stop the release of the series and at least $100,000 in damages. As the date gets closer, no public news have arisen about the possibility that the show doesn't air.

A post on Blanco's Instagram account on December 4 anticipates the release of the book, titled "My Mother, The Godmother, and the True Story of Michael Corleone Blanco, the Son of Griselda Blanco." "This my body of work and it is not related to any other known projects in any form or fashion," reads the caption of the post.

Despite the legal woes, Sofía Vergara, who portrays Blanco, has been on a media tour promoting the show, even recounting her acting journey as Griselda as an experience so grueling and fascinating that it caused a back injury.

To portray her character as accurately as possible, Vergara had to learn to smoke and sort. "I have never smoked in my life; Andi (Andrés Baiz) taught me to do coke, too," she said with laughter in an interview with Spanish show El Hormiguero.

She also went through a self-imposed physical change. "I wanted the public to forget about me and forget about Gloria," she said about her character in "Modern Family. Vergara used tight underwear that constrained her movements when walking. She also adopted another posture, which caused a back injury. "I have had three painkilling shots, and I am still suffering," she revealed.

Her transformation included prostheses for the teeth and nose. "It was horrible. When I yelled, the teeth would go flying out of my mouth. I had trouble breathing. "It was a big ordeal," she admitted.