This 11-minute video introduces students to a misunderstood lawsuit over a spilled cup of McDonald’s coffee, and shows how the details of a complicated situation can be misinterpreted—and even morph into an urban legend—when a news story is oversimplified. The video traces what happened after 79-year-old Stella Liebeck accidentally spilled a cup of hot coffee onto her lap in a McDonald’s parking lot in 1994, and sued the company. Students will learn about the power of images and video clips in documentary storytelling, and the ways the news documentary format can be used to critique and comment on other news stories. The video is also useful for a discussion of tort law.