Lawsuit
The model for Princess Natasha was Princess Irina Yusupov, the wife of Felix Yusupov, one of Grigori Rasputin's actual murderers. Yusupov filed a lawsuit against MGM in 1933, claiming invasion of privacy and libel. The film portrays her as a victim of Rasputin, and it is implied that he raped her, which never happened. She won an award of $127,373 in an English court and an out-of-court settlement with MGM, reportedly of $250,000, in New York.
The familiar disclaimer "This motion picture is a work of fiction... All characters portrayed are fictitious, and relation to actual people is coincidental" in the credits of most Hollywood films is a result of the lawsuit. The scene was cut, which rendered Wynyard's character somewhat incomprehensible if the viewer of the film is not aware of this cut—in the first half of the film, Princess Natasha is a supporter of Rasputin, and in the second half she is extremely afraid of him, for no apparent reason. The laserdisc release of this film includes the original theatrical trailer, which contains a portion of this deleted scene.
Read more about this topic: Rasputin And The Empress