Bizarre twist in Baby Reindeer’s ‘real Martha’ nightclub appearance: 'Absolutely vile'

A nightclub in Coventry, England has found itself in the centre of a media storm after announcing that Fiona Harvey - the woman who allegedly inspired the events of Netflix's Baby Reindeer - would be making an appearance to "sign autographs and take selfies."

Club promotes Fiona Harvey 'appearance'

The club's initial social media post, which also stated that perhaps Fiona would "take a lucky reindeer home to hang her curtains" was met with harsh criticism from people who found the event to be in extremely poor form.

"As a business you should be appalled that you need to use a male’s sa story to gain customers," one disgusted person wrote. "Absolutely vile."

"Making money from a bloke being sexually assaulted, classy," another wrote on the Instagram post.

Fumed another, "Turning a victim's story of stalking and sexual assault into a joke and trying to profit from it is genuinely depraved and you should feel nothing but shame."

Wrote another, "inviting her as guest but I'm sure you have an 'ask for angela' poster in your establishment… embarrassing."

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The angry comments kept coming on social media and several media outlets covered the supposed event until the club posted an update stating the appearance was no longer going ahead.

Kasbah 'cancels' Fiona Harvey event

"Unfortunately, the promoter of this Saturday’s meet & greet with Fiona Harvey has deemed the event unsafe and cancelled the appearance due to the negative publicity," the club wrote in a new Instagram post.

"We would however, like to thank him for considering our venue and in particular we’d like to thank Metro News, The Daily Mail, BBC News online, Coventry Live, Birmingham Mail, ITV news, The Independent, NME, Glasgow Live, MSN, The Sun, The Daily Mirror, Warwick Boar, Business Insider, The Tab, CNN News and numerous Instagram meme pages with a combined total of 33 million followers for their support and free publicity, you guys are the gift that keeps on giving ☺️😉."

The venue went on to say that they would be "open as normal" over the weekend and told patrons to "Simply quote “Martha” at the front door on Saturday to receive £1 off entry before midnight!"

While the stunt was more than likely intended as a PR grab, few customers seemed impressed with the move and, again, took to social media to say so.

"Now I’m thinking this is just a stupid PR stunt and not real," someone wrote. "Terrible idea as now nobody is going to be associating your club with anything positive."

Said another, "I don’t think this turned out how the club expected, terrible PR stunt, looks like they’re the next business to go down the drain!"

"This is genuinely one of the most vile promotional tactics I’ve ever heard of, but you got your little 5 minutes of social media fame so well done," someone else scathingly replied.

Others were a little more forgiving with one person going so far as to praise the club for its "marketing genius."

"The clickbait was sensational the country was hook line and sinker🤣👏🏼," someone else gleefully said.

Others called the stunt "iconic" and one person even lamented "well, this news has ruined my Saturday."

Body language expert on Fiona Harvey's Piers Morgan interview

The club's controversial move comes after Fiona Harvey appeared on Piers Morgan Uncensored to share her side of the story, calling Richard Gadd a 'psychopath' and insisting that he was the one obsessed with her.

Body language expert David Stephens, spoke to Yahoo Lifestyle about Fiona's confusing interview, saying there was some significant behaviour on display that disputed Fiona's story and many contradictions that made her a less than reliable source.

David notes that throughout the interview, we see many "discomfort behaviours", including eye-fluttering and lip-licking.

For example, "When asked by the interviewer if you'd be happy for someone to look at your computer, Fiona answers 'Yer, yer, I don’t know, yer'. As she says this, we see a lot of discomfort, including small head shakes, indicating that she likely did not want anyone to look at her computer," David said. "Additionally, she averts her gaze, as she looks away from the interviewer, as well as swallowing behaviours that again indicate a high level of discomfort."

David also points out that Fiona avoids calling Richard Gadd a liar until pressed by Morgan to do so.

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"Psychologically, this is one way people try to hide the truth while protecting themselves on a technicality, by attempting to deny the accusations while at the same time not accusing the other person of outright lying," says David.

He concludes, "While nothing is absolute, on balance these behaviours are a very good indication that Fiona has, in fact, sent a large number of emails and voice messages."

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