David and Jackie Siegel in 'The Queen of Versailles.' Photo credit: Lauren Greenfield
The movie has its TV premiere at 9 p.m. Monday, April 29.
“The Queen of Versailles” explores the financial difficulties the family faced as they tried to build a 90,000-square-foot home outside Orlando when the Great Recession hit. The movie also examines a credit crunch that he faced at his Orlando-based Westgate Resorts time-share company.
David Siegel has sued director Lauren Greenfield for defamation for suggesting that his business failed. The case has gone to arbitration, and so has another dispute over who owns the Siegels’ story. The Siegels were considering doing a reality show, but the filmmakers say the couple signed over the rights to their story when “The Queen of Versailles” was made.
Despite the behind-the-scenes turmoil, the documentary received strong reviews.
The Huffington Post was impressed: “Masterful. A wickedly funny allegory about the American Dream.”
In The New York Times, A.O. Scott raved: “A sprawling, richly detailed study of ambition, desire and the wild swings of fortune. A gaudy guilty pleasure that is also a piece of trenchant social criticism. If this film is a portrait, it is also a mirror.”
And now that mirror will play on your TV set.
